A few months ago, a friend gave me two pieces of Guatemalan ”Olmec Blue” jade for carving.  It is a a muted translucent bluish-green, like seawater.  Guatemala has produced green jade since ancient times.  The source for the dusky bluish stone of Olmec carvings remained a mystery until 1999, when flooding from Hurricane Mitch revealed outcrops of blue jade in a remote jungle river valley.  Prospectors brought small pieces of gem-quality jade to the Tucson gem shows a few years later.  It remains an expensive material and difficult to obtain.  Compared to other jades, it’s also a challenge to carve, especially in small sizes, since a lot of it contains innumerable pockets of crumbly crystals that can give even highly polished stones a slightly pitted “orange peel” surface texture.   I cut a thin slice off the end of one piece and carved this claw-shaped pendant while removing as little material as possible from the tiny slice of stone.  The back isn’t shown, but the two sides are identical.  The other pendant is fossil mammoth ivory with a very similar bluish-green color.  Both are about 1.5″ long, including the sterling silver settings.  The blue color in the jade is due to iron and small amounts of titanium; in the fossil ivory it is due to vivianite, an iron phosphate.  Both pendants will be part of a necklace with beads and mixed metals.

December 2009 is the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Ironwing Tarot.  Although the full 78-card deck/book set sold out 18 months ago, I still get occasional requests for copies of the deck and/or book.  Since I don’t plan to reprint the deck, I’ve decided to make the book available for free download from my website.   

Download the Ironwing Tarot Book HERE.  (.pdf file, 6.7 mb)

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The 112-page book is intended to print on half-sheets of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, so you’ll need to cut the printed sheets in half and assemble them.  (A note to collectors:  The version that I sold with the deck had a black spiral binding but otherwise looked no different from what you’d print on a home computer.)  The book includes background material about iron geology, blacksmithing, and shamanism.  There are detailed descriptions and a tiny image for each card, several spreads and creative exercises, a few poems, and some other odds and ends.  All of it is intended to make the deck more interesting and usable.  The entire book is black and white, including the images for the Major Arcana, so you don’t need a color printer.

Needless to say, the Ironwing Tarot deck and book are protected by copyright.  Feel free to download the book for your personal use, but not for publication or resale.

I have NO copies of the 78-card deck available for sale.  Decks can sometimes be found for trade on various Tarot forums and occasionally on Ebay.  I am not currently a member of any online Tarot communities, and have stepped away from that world to work on other things (including the Black Cat Deck, which is non-Tarot).

To everyone who has purchased a deck and/or offered their comments about it, either online or privately:  Thank you very much for your support, interest, and contribution.  It was a great project and I have enjoyed sharing it with everyone.

We walked in the Tucson All Souls Procession last night.  We took pictures this year – here’s my set, and from any of these you can link to Flickr’s ALL SOULS PROCESSION group and see more photos from other people.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leonfangs/sets/72157622765310126/

A big crowd this year, and more spectators than usual.  This event is 20 years old and began as a small procession (so obscure that I never heard of it during the two years I lived in Tucson in the early 90s).   I’ve only attended for the past four years, and during that time it has become a major, heavily-publicized event.  It’s actually TWO events – the procession and the finale.  The procession is open to anyone and is a fascinating showcase for creativity of all kinds – costumes and masks, sculpture, carettas (mobile altars, floats or art), ritual objects, music, and dance.  As was probably inevitable, it appears to be gradually losing its original focus (a memorial procession to honor dead friends, family, and ancestors) and becoming a more generalized public costume party, but there is still enough of the “community deathwalk” aspect to be very powerful.  It starts slowly and often rather solemn.  But when the mob makes the “Underworld passage” through the Fourth Avenue underpass, it conjures the spirit of the Oldest River with a cacophony of howls, ululations, thundering drums, and clanging bells…and all the invisible things riding the night air are drawn through in a gust of wind, scattering on the other side as the crowd becomes quieter and more relaxed, and people move a little faster and more freely. 

The Urn heads the procession, but the burning of the Urn no longer serves any ritual purpose, since the Finale has evolved into a theatrical spectacle of its own that includes firespinners, acrobats, and musicians.  The logistics of this event make for a very long wait in the crowd after the end of the procession.  I have seen it once, but I am not fond of theatrical performance for its own sake, so I prefer to just enjoy the procession and go home.

I recently bought a vintage lapidary machine on Craigslist.  It’s for cutting cabochons, and includes a trim saw, grinding wheels, sanding drum, and buffing wheel.  I mostly want it for making beads and cutting preforms for gem carving. 

Wyoming Archean Banded Iron

Double-sided drilled and polished pendant, 31×21x5mm.

Matched pair of triangular cabochons, 20×16x4mm.

This is Early Archean banded iron from the Shirley Basin in southeastern Wyoming.  At 3.7 billion years old, it is one of the oldest rocks on earth.  This rare material is similar in composition to Australian “tiger iron” but is not as colorful and is almost never cut as a gem.   The polished stones were cut from two pebbles that I collected ten years ago.   The gray metallic stripes are mostly hematite with minor black magnetite layers.  The brown layers are composed of tiny interlocking  sheaves of crocidolite crystals, an iron-rich metamorphic silicate that forms at relatively high temperature and pressure. 

The larger stone will adorn a medicine bag.  I will probably set the triangular pair as earrings.

 Go HERE for the first post on how to design and shape the mask.

Copper Jaguar Mask

The Copper Jaguar Mask could be used as it is, but I want to add spots and fabric decorations.

RIVETS:  A jaguar’s spots (like the markings on any spotted or striped cat) are unique to the individual, just like human finger prints.  Even black jaguars have spots, though they may not be visible except in bright sunlight.  But the spots on the mask will be highly stylized decorative rivets for a 3-D look.  Rivets are small cylindrical pieces of metal that are commonly used to join two pieces of metal without heat (in blacksmithing, large steel rivets are heated, though the pieces to be joined may not be). 

I drew dots on the copper with a permanent marker and used a drill press to drill holes from the inside of the mask, with the metal resting on a block of scrap wood.  The three hole sizes fit the three sizes of wire that I chose for rivets. 

Holes Drilled for Rivets

Copper wire in gauges 14, 10, and 6 was annealed to soften it.  (Rivets smaller than 16 are more difficult to set, and anything larger than 6 is quite heavy).  The pieces of wire must be long enough to form a substantial domed or flattened ”head” when they are hammered in, but not so long that the shank bends sideways or protrudes from the sheet metal.  For this project, I cut pieces of wire about 3/16″ long, and file the ends flat and smooth.  I usually lay the metal on the anvil for riveting, but the convex surface of the mask needed a domed support.  Fortunately I have a specialized tool for the job:  a forming stake, bought years ago from another blacksmith, made from a trailer hitch ball welded to a length of heavy square bar that slides into the hardy hole on my anvil.  For each rivet, I laid the mask right-side-up on the stake, put the rivet in the hole, and carefully hammered the end of the wire with the ball end of the hammer.  I worked on the edges of the rivet first, to stabilize it, then hammered the center to flatten it, and hammered the edges again to create a dome.  I flipped the mask over and hammered the rivet a couple of times from the back, just to make sure it was securely fastened into the metal.  Here’s the finished mask, with a closer view of some of the rivets.

I’ve been collecting round white quartz or chalcedony pebbles for many years, and for a long time I had an ever-changing series of them them arranged on a round ”Dark Moon Turtle Shell” mandala in my studio, to represent the 13 moons of the year.  I have been (and still am) drawing the more interesting ones for the “Stones” half of my “Sticks and Stones” oracle.  But I have always wanted to make some of them into a necklace.  It took awhile to find the right beads to go with the stones, but the result was this Moon Pebble Choker.  Holes were carved with small diamond drills.  Pebbles were wrapped with 16-gauge copper wire (silver might seem like a more appropriate choice for a moon necklace, but it needs frequent polishing.  The copper will tarnish gracefully and be a better match for the rough, earthy beads).  The antique African forged iron beads are of two different types:  bicones and simple flat-sided heishi.  There are also two African bronze beads, my forged iron s-hooks (a little thicker than the ones I make for earrings) and 14-gauge copper wire hooks on a 4mm round natural leather cord.

Moon Pebble Necklace

Stones:  (Left to right in photo).  All are unpolished natural pebbles, but #5 has simple carving.  I collected all except #1 and #8.

1.  Beach pebble of hydrated Florida fossil coral agate.  One of several stones that I inherited from a friend. 

2.  Hydrated chalcedony nodule with a uniform network of surface cracks.  Oligocene White River Formation, Pine Bluffs, WY.  “Hydration rinds” are common on chalcedony and chert pebbles that have been exposed to groundwater or weathering at the earth’s surface for a long time.  The weathered part of the stone becomes white, porous, opaque, and relatively soft.  This can be a thin “skin” or rind on the outside of the stone (#3,4), or just one or two spots (#6), or the entire stone (#1,2,7).  Hydration rinds are common on petrified wood and even some flint artifacts.  In chalky or clay-rich rock, chert may acquire a hydration rind while still embedded in the rock, which is what happened to this pebble.  Basically it is “snakeskin agate” (see #8) that is completely hydrated.  

3.  Beach pebble of hydrated brown chert with a natural cuplike hollow, Nags Head, NC.

4.  Pebble of gray flint with white hydration rind, Cretaceous chalk, Salisbury Plain, England.

5.  Creek pebble of vein quartz from metamorphic rock, northern Virginia.  Carved with a crescent moon and two rings.

6.  Chalcedony ventifact (wind-polished pebble) with white hydration spot.  Prairie gravel near Cheyenne, WY.

7.  Lake Michigan shore pebble of hydrated chert from Ordovician limestone, Chicago, IL.

8.  Snakeskin agate with thin reticulated hydration rind, Oligocene, eastern Oregon (purchased at a rock shop).

9.  Chalcedony “button” from volcanic gravel near Tucson, AZ.

Well, I didn’t expect to take such a long break from the blog, but self-promotion hasn’t been a priority lately, and life has been alternately chaotic and lethargic, so I have several projects in the works but have not finished much.

We have a magical plant growing wild in our backyard.  This is the Chiltepin, Capsicum annuum, the wild “Mother of Chiles” that is the ancestor of all cultivated chili peppers.  It is one of the most sacred, mythical, and useful plants in the New World.  Despite the scientific name, it is not an annual, but a delicate perennial shrub that usually grows in the shade of a “nurse tree” (in my case, an old and often-pruned pyracantha which also shades a couple of young desert hackberry trees).  Although primarily a native of mountain forests in Mexico, the chiltepin does grow in a few widely scattered localities in Arizona, Texas, and the eastern U.S.  The seeds do not germinate easily, which makes the plants difficult to cultivate and is probably one reason that they are so rare in the wild.  The tiny white starlike flowers are followed by green oval fruits that are only about 1/4″ long.  The ripe chiles are bright red and will dry naturally on the stems as the plant dies back for the winter (unless the birds eat them!)  They are among the hottest chiles in the world (hotter than the habanero, which usually claims the “hottest pepper” title) but their fierce heat does not last long.

Half hidden under the stout pyracantha branches (heavy with their own berries, now turning orange), the wild chile sparkles in the morning sun.  The shadows under the bright green leaves are deeper than any shade in the desert, as if the jewel-like berries adorn a mysterious window into the  Sierra Madre.

Chiltepin

I’ve made some small videos of several iron bells.

See and hear them ringing on this Youtube page:

 http://www.youtube.com/user/visualclutter

Descriptions and prices are on the Iron Bells webpage:

http://www.mineralarts.com/artwork/ironbells.html

Here’s the newest bell.  It’s the same triple-nested design that I used for the All Souls Procession Bell, in which the smaller bells act as clappers for the larger ones.  But this one is more compact, with the smaller bells hanging neatly inside the big one, and a hidden button-style clapper inside the smallest.  No fancy chain on this one – just a riveted, reverse-twisted link for carrying or holding a cord.  This simple bell is made for travelling, with nothing to snag on fabric or get in the way.  Not showy, just useful.  And loud! 

Traveller's Bell - top view

Traveller's Bell - underside

Today we hiked in Madera Canyon, the famous birdwatcher’s paradise in the Santa Rita Mountains not far from our house.  It’s a popular hiking area in beautiful Madrean evergreen oak/pine woodland.  Today there were very few birds (though we did spot a sulphur-bellied flycatcher in a sycamore tree).  We followed a creek that flowed through a rocky canyon full of trumpetilla, scarlet cinquefoil, and other summer forest wildflowers.  We saw two rare orchids:  Hexalectris warnockii, a beautiful coralroot with deep purple flowers (unfortunately it had already bloomed, so we just saw the ripening seedpods) and  Malaxis corymbosa, a Sierra Madre plant that grows in the U.S. only in shady wooded canyons in the Santa Rita, Huachuca, and Chiricahua mountains of southern Arizona.  I had never seen this plant before and was delighted to make a new botanical friend.

Malaxis corymbosa

SAFETY NOTES:  This is not a kid’s project.  It involves sharp-edged tools, hammers, fire, and hot metal.  It is designed for someone who has never worked with metal before, but it does require patience and concentration.  Choose a well-lit, uncluttered work area that is free of children and pets.   

CHOOSE THE IMAGE:  I first used this technique to make a Copper Cat Mask, but it can be applied to masks depicting other animals, birds, or human faces.  First, make a small, simple sketch that captures the essence of the face using only the outline and a few simple contours.  Remember that the mask will not be colored.  Hair, whiskers, etc. can be added later as embellishments, but to be most effective, the mask should be completely recognizable without them.  The mask below is easily identified as feline even without facial markings, whiskers, or pupils in the eyes.   

Cat Mask

I want to make a jaguar mask, so I made this sketch:

Jaguar head sketch

Compared to domestic cats (and small wild cats), the big cats have longer faces, deeper muzzles, and eyes that are smaller in relation to the size of the face.  The jaguar has a round face and small ears that are set quite low on the head.

PAPER MASK:  Before cutting any metal, make a paper template.  Measure the following for the person who will be wearing the mask:  face width, distance between the eyes, height and width of one eye, and the depth of the mask (usually the top of the forehead to the tip of the nose, but it depends on the shape of the mask and how much of the face will be covered). 

FIRST DRAFT:  Use your measurements and your small preliminary sketch to draw the mask.   First, mark the placement of the eyes and draw the eyeholes.  Don’t worry too much about the eye shape at this point – a simple oval is fine.  Draw the outline.  Keep it simple – except for the ears, avoid sharp projecting points, since these will make it difficult to shape the mask and may be a nuisance when you’re wearing it.  Cut out the paper mask and the eyeholes.

CHECK THE FIT:  Look in a mirror and hold the paper mask up to your face, bending it slightly to fit.  Check the size and position of the eyeholes.  No part of your eye should be covered.  If you have trouble seeing clearly, you may need to decrease the distance between the eyeholes and/or enlarge them.  Mark the paper with any adjustments.  Look at the outline.  Are you satisfied with the way it covers your face?  Are the ears positioned and sized correctly in relation to the rest of the mask?  Check the position of the nose, since you may want to cut the nostrils out as breathing holes.

SECOND DRAFT:  Re-draw the mask.  Remember that it will probably be larger and wider than the face of the animal you’re depicting, and the eyeholes may be relatively large for the size of the face.   But even if the shape isn’t entirely realistic, you can adjust the relative proportions of all features except the eyes to make it look more convincing.  Now design the shape of the eyeholes.  Since they will determine the facial expression, try several outlines to see which one gives the effect you want, but be careful to stay within the boundaries of the size and placement that you measured with the first draft.  Cut out the second draft and try it on.  You may need to make several paper versions to get it perfect. 

TOOLS YOU WILL NEED:  Sheet metal snips or shears (several types are available; two are shown here), file, awl or sharp-pointed large nail, small propane blowtorch and lighter, medium-sized ballpeen hammer, and a sheet of 400 grit emery paper.  The only specialized tool that you will need is something with a round hole that is slightly larger than the ball end of your hammer.  This tool is the “anvil” that will support the work while you hammer, and the hole gives you something to “sink” the metal into.  Probably the simplest such tool is a wood block, such as a piece of 2 x 4, with a hole drilled in it.  File the top edge of the hole so it is smooth and rounded, so you don’t hammer a crease into the metal.  (You can also use a thick-walled piece of plastic pipe or a flared piece of steel pipe clamped in a vise.)  

If you have them, a jeweler’s saw and a motorized grinding tool (such as a Dremel moto-tool or its heavier-duty, more expensive cousin, the Foredom flex-shaft machine) can save time, but they are not essential.

Tools for a Metal Mask

CHOOSING AND CUTTING THE METAL:  Copper is the easiest metal to work with, though you can also use brass (a little harder) or sterling silver (dramatic but expensive). Aluminum and steel require different techniques and are not covered here.  If the metal is too thin, it will not hold its shape, and if it is too thick, it will be difficult to hammer and heavy to wear.  The easiest metal to find (and work with) is the sheet copper that is used for roofing and other building projects, and is available at many hardware stores.  It should be roughly the thickness of a piece of poster board.  I’m not giving an exact gauge here because it will depend on the manufacturer, if it’s given at all.  The rolled-up metal foils that are sold for craft projects are too thin for this particular project.

Lay the paper template on the metal and draw around it with a Sharpie or other permanent marker, or score the metal with an awl.  Cut out the shape with metal shears.  For the eyeholes, poke holes with a hammer and large nail so you can get the shears in,  and cut a rough shape.  Use a file to smooth the inside of the eyeholes and the outside edge of the cutout.  (Or cut the eyeholes out with a jeweler’s saw).

Jaguar Mask: Paper Template and Copper Cutout

ANNEALING:  Before hammering, the metal must be annealed (heated and softened).  Work outdoors.  Ordinary UV-blocking sunglasses should offer sufficient eye protection.  (Yes, the torch gives off UV radiation.  All flames do.)  Place the metal on concrete, a stone, or a firebrick and heat it with a propane torch.  Move the torch slowly over the metal until the entire piece has turned dark and/or shows swirling iridescent colors.  Shut off the torch and let the metal cool.  It may be covered with black or brown powdery firescale (copper oxides) that will flake off as you work. 

HAMMERING:  Using the ball end of the hammer, begin hammering on the BACK SIDE of the mask, in the center of the forehead, placing the metal over the hole in the wood block.   Use light, even taps that are very close together or overlapping, and keep the metal moving – don’t hammer too hard or long in one spot.   Work outward towards the ears, the bridge of the nose, and the edge of the mask.  You will slowly “sink” the metal into the hole.  Hammer the cheeks, then the muzzle, and then the bridge of the nose in the same way, starting in the center and working towards the edges.  You’ll see the nose automatically begin to define itself between the domes of the other hammered areas.  Hammer it last, just enough to give a shallow dome without distorting the surrounding metal.  Flip the mask over, and hammer the ears.  To hammer the edges of the metal into a gentle curve, tilt the mask up about 45 degrees, resting on the flat part of the block (not the hole), and hammer along the edge.  For this first heat, try for even, gently domed contours over the entire mask, and don’t worry about details.

JAGUAR MASK after the first hammering session:

Jaguar Mask - First Heat

ANNEALING AGAIN:  You’ll eventually feel the metal begin to harden and become more resistant to shaping.  Once you begin to feel this effect, stop hammering, anneal the metal again, and let it cool.  You will do this several times before you’re finished, so be patient.  Annealing the metal softens it and relieves the stresses of hammering to keep it from cracking.  If you hammer the metal for too long without annealing, you risk developing creases, flat spots, cracks, and other permanent flaws.  When you take a break to anneal the metal, it gives you a chance to inspect the work carefully and plan what you will do next.   In any metalwork, studying, imagining, and planning are essential parts of the entire process, not just the beginning. 

HAMMERING – ADDING DETAIL:  As the mask takes shape, you’ll see areas that need to be raised higher, edges that need to curl under, or areas such as the ears and nose that need more definition.  After the second heat, you’ll refine the shapes of each area and begin to add details.  It will become easier to see which areas need work, and your hammering will feel less random.  If your hammer blows are overlapping, you’ll see the surface begin to smooth out and look less dimpled.

Here’s the JAGUAR MASK after the second hammering session.  The relief is higher, the nose and forehead are better defined, and a file has been used to begin to refine the bottom edge of the mask.  But the  eyes haven’t been touched, and the forehead and muzzle need more definition.

Jaguar Mask - Heat 2

HAMMERING – FINISHING TOUCHES:  By now, there should be only a couple of areas that still need a lot of work, and most of your hammering will be to refining the domes and making sure both sides of the mask look the same.  (The jaguar mask was finished in three heats, but the cat mask took four.  The exact number doesn’t matter, since YOU are the one who decides when it’s done.  You should remember that the metal grows a bit thinner as you hammer it, and as you develop higher and more complex relief, the shaping becomes more of a challenge and the chance of spoiling the previous work increases.  Don’t overwork the metal.)

JAGUAR MASK – Finished!  The forehead has been given a “brow ridge” to add definition, the muzzle has been refined, and the top edges of the mask has been filed into shape.  Nostril holes were drilled in the nose, the edges of the mask were sanded smooth (very important to avoid cuts and scrapes when you’re wearing it, and to give a finished look) and 14 gauge copper wire rings were added to the sides.  (Punch or drill holes for these.  If you don’t have any wire, get a couple of 1/2 inch  split rings, such as are used for keyrings.)  Note that the domes are not completely smooth, and the metal still has a slightly dimpled look.  In order to get rid of the dimples, you would need to anneal the mask one more time, place it over a round polished stake (or the ballpeen hammer clamped in a vise) and use a very flat silversmith’s hammer to planish the metal on the FRONT SIDE, which will give the domes a smoother shape…IF you know what you’re doing and you have stakes that are the right size and shape.  This is a lot of extra work and could spoil the lifelike, hand-hammered vigor of a mask made of copper or brass, though I’d do it for one made of sterling silver.  I didn’t do it for the cat or the jaguar.

Jaguar Mask - Heat 3

You could stop here.  If you want the copper to be bright and shiny (as I did for the cat mask, since I was wearing it at night), you can sand the mask with emery paper (400 grit first, then 600 for a higher polish).   Here are the two masks shown together for comparison.  The jaguar hasn’t been polished, and the cat was polished and has since tarnished.

Copper Jaguar and Cat Masks

Copper Jaguar and Cat Masks, side view

 TIES:  Ribbons, leather cords, strings, and even elastic bands will not hold the mask securely for a long time, especially if you will be walking or dancing while wearing it.  Instead, make ties from strips of cotton fabric, about two feet long and two inches wide.  Tied in a square knot, these will be very secure (try wearing the mask around the house first to get the fit right).  Make the ties out of black fabric (simple, elegant, and inconspicuous) or use a fabric that will integrate with the rest of your costume.

The Jaguar Mask isn’t finished.  It’s wearable now.  But in a later post, I’ll add spots and ornaments.