Central Virginia Blacksmith Guild meeting January 19, 2009 at Mike Gillespie's shop.

Steve Musulin was the featured demonstrator at this meeting.  It was quite different from what we normally do at meetings, as Steve's specialty is Junk Yard Art http://www.junkyardjunkie.com/

Steve demonstrated using common discarded items and showed us how he combines various parts and pieces to create sculptures.  Steve also showed us some of his creations, including a turtle made with a cultivator disk, an owl made from a compressed gas bottle cap, a dog made from an overhead door spring, bugs made from silverware and other items.

After Steve's inspiring demonstration, the members were broken up into groups and given a box of assorted various pieces of metal objects that can be commonly found in scrap yards.  Each group was given the task of creating a group sculpture project with whatever they had in their box.  As each box contained different items, it was interesting to see how each group sorted through their items and came up with a plan of action.

The goal was for each member to work together in their group and that fostered a healthy competition between the groups as to who would have the "best sculpture".

Once time was called, the projects were displayed together on a table and everyone could see the results of each group.  All items were put into the "iron in the hat" and there was some serious raffle tickets being purchased for the chance to take home an "original sculpture".

Many favorable comments were received after the meeting about how much "fun" folks had working on their projects.  Oftentimes you have a demonstrator and folks watch and learn, but here, EVERYBODY got involved in the process.

Steve Musulin - Demonstrator

Steve's owl made from a compress bottle cover cap

Steve's dog made from an overhead door spring

Steve's turtle made from an cultivator disk

One group trying to decide what to make out of their "junk".

Some of the group project creations.........

Still more project creations, but it looks like this one is self-perpetuating..............