Hello and welcome to "Following the Iron Brush"

 
Although this is very obviously a forum, like all the others, I want to promote the idea of this as a "project". By this I mean that you will hopefully, quite quickly, begin to see the development of a distinct philosophy regarding all aspects of our work. I'm not trying to impose any style or aesthetic, rather a re-focusing on what I believe are fundamental values in this sort of work. There is an emphasis, at times, on the Classical Japanese tradition of metalwork, this being my own background, but it in no way excludes other approaches and materials.

Above all, I would like to stress that, apart from absolute concrete facts, almost everything on this forum will be opinion. As such, please remember that you are not your opinions, opinions are only expressions of a part of the truth. Some people have a broader, or deeper, view of a subject than others but everybody is welcome to contribute as long as their thoughts are considered.

With regard to commenting on work that is displayed here, whether in the, less formal, "show and tell" section or the more serious, critique area, "show and listen" I would ask that you move swiftly beyond the pleasantries and try to feel what you really want to communicate to the artist in question. I'm merely trying to encourage more reflection on our own, as well as others work.

I'm not going to post a list of rules, I'm not your mother or father! and have no interest in being either....unless you have an obscene amount of money to tempt me with.

following the iron brush
I trust that we all understand what it means to interact as adults in an intelligent and civil manner. Obscenities and plain old nastiness will be frowned on and may get you thrown out, so don't push it! because this will be the best place of it's kind on the web and you really will be missing out. Similarly, rudeness won't be tolerated unless it's very, very funny...or you are just too brilliant to lose.
So, if after reading this brief introduction you think this would work for you please feel free to join us, we'll be pleased to get to know you.
tsuba
You can register by following this link, but please note that we would like you to use a "real world" name. I find it a bit off putting trying to communicate honestly with some cyber alias that sounds like it was borrowed from a bad sci-fi movie.

I would encourage the use of photos as avatars because I feel, and previous experience on tcp ( The carving path ) has shown, that it is a really good way to overcome the impersonal character of the internet. I recognise that some of you may still feel a little uncomfortable with this idea so a pencil drawn likeness will be a reasonable substitute, and good drawing practice.

By all means add a link to your own website, blog or facebook...whatever you care to share.

Finally ( there will probably be more...later ), Although I am supported by an able and diverse group of Admin members these thoughts are purely my own. I'm not suggesting that my comments reflect those of the group...just me. I have deliberately tried to cultivate a wide range of approaches here, lets see how it works out.

very best regards, and Namaste,

Ford

 

If you would like to explore the forum to get an idea of what we are up to here, before you decide whether or not to join, please use the following link.

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