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LOCATIONSalamander Forge
is located on Orcas Island, Washington. The island, the second largest
in the American San Juans, is at almost the furthest northwest corner of
the continental United States. Surrounded by water, blessed with great
natural beauty, this place has been my home since 1975. For the first ten years, this area was simply protected from the weather by a canvas awning. In this relatively mild climate, I enjoyed the feeling of openness and the constant intimate contact with the weather and natural woodland environment. The fact that most of this part of the shop is still open, but covered, means that I have less restriction on the size of the pieces I create. The fact that the building would be considered small, for such a productive full time business, means that projects once begun have to move on and out. The machine room for the metal shop is efficiently set up with saws, grinders, vises, lathe, and drill press. The outdoor forge is equipped with several power hammers, anvils, forges, presses, post vises, cone mandrels, as well as hundreds of hammers, tongs, and hand tools. The fabrication area is well laid out with various modern welders, plasma cutter, oxy/fuel cutting and heating torches, and several large steel layout tables. A 5'x10' platen table is just outside to aid in bending heavy bars to a specific shape. A 50 ton hydraulic ironworker makes quick work of shearing raw stock to length, as well as punching various sizes and shapes of holes in metal plate. Another annex contains a long layout table with overhead hoist, racks for storing an inventory of steel stock, as well as a painting and finishing area. The hot metal gives up its secrets slowly,
requiring patience combined with forceful strength, to bring the
artist's vision to light. To me, it is not so much about the metal
or all of the wonderful tools involved, but the incredible magic process
that allows creation to happen.
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Photography by Bill Dean, Mary Gropp, Steve Gropp, Martin Taylor © Salamander Forge, Inc., 2007 |