Dear All,
I’m just back from a wonderful trip to and found that Orchid already
had word of my travels (Sam Patania’s “I love Orchid” posted May
10th).
I began with a week in New York studying chasing and repoussee with
Valentin Yatkov. I found Valintin to be a fine teacher, generous
with both his spirit and his knowledge. He is a real advocate for
this technique, working hard to promote its use for both jewelry and
larger decorative pieces. One approach to this advocacy involves
starting a forum for metal workers interested in chasing and
repoussee as methods for directly shaping metal. Valentin is hoping
to have an initial meeting for this forum as the upcoming SNAG
meeting in San Francisco. If you are interested in the meeting or
the forum, please contact him, off list, at
silversmith@valentinyotkov.com.
From New York I flew to Tucson for a visit with my daughter, but
could not resist the opportunity to check into the local metal
smithing scene. I knew of Dave Arens and Sam Patania from their
contributions to this list. Sam regularly works on the Orchid dinner
in Tucson and with the significant efforts of his front room worker,
Pat, he is managing Orchid’s raffle for the J2R casting machine so
generously donated to us by Rio Grande. Sam and his dad, who in his
seventies is still an active silversmith and marathon runner, were
very welcoming. We talked about tools and techniques 'til I felt I
had distracted them from working long enough. A couple of days
later, I arranged with Dave Arens to meet me at Patania’s so that we
might have some lunch and get acquainted. Dave, Sam and I grabbed
some Mexican food and talked about tool, work and the benefits we
get from being involved with Orchid.
All in all I had a great time and have come back home to Ottawa
excited to get back to work. Thanks folks!
