Why I Forge????

So I go to fairs and festivals and I demo for the public, it is great I love the kids and 90% of the adults. But it is disheartening to be told your work is overpriced, Target/walmart has it cheaper, that your work is bad, they could do it better, they know a blacksmith who is a million times better then you......anyway you get the point. It bums me out because they just seem to take life for granted, don't appreciate the fact that I showed up with 2 tons of equipment to demo, nor are they able to see value of time, product, community, and history. I think if a welding firm can charge $80-$100 an hour to cut and zap stock pieces of iron together, then the original metal fabricator, and skilled craftsman who physically manipulates the iron in to one of a kind pieces of functional tools, wares and art, should at the least get close to that. To compare my works and wares to Target/Walmart/Kmart......ouch!!! I have feelings you know! I demo to share the beauty of Blacksmithing and in doing so an extention of myself, so yah it hurts a little. I was asked if I don't get rich doing this why do I do it.

Here is my responce. To better understand this responce you may want to read the "about" page on the site first.

I forge my iron from my pain, my suffering, my tears. From the deepest, darkest, hidden places in my soul, my heart. I add the joys of my life- Gina, Mady, Morgan-Jade, the love of my friends. I cry, I sweat, bleed, smile, and ponder as I beat the iron. All the while my very being, my me, screams with every blow of that hammer. Rainbows of emotion, as black as the forging coke is to as bright the iron from my forge is, poor forth or claw their way out. My intellectual self knows to stand aside, the emotion has to get out, it can't stay in, it would destroy all I cherish, love, and hold of value, in which I also would cease to exist. I know who I am, what's inside of me. It's not all roses and cotton candy, and beautiful pleasantries. It's big, dark, mean, ugly, nasty and loud. I hate it. So I forge, I forge to take ugly, black feelings and ugly black iron and create both a release and beautiful things. That is the beautiful thing about my creator, his strength, his love, his sight, fuels me to find away to turn all the bad into something better. So I am sorry you may not care for myself, my work, but my sorrow only extends to you because you are not able to see real beauty when it's standing right in front of you. So I forge on, and pray your sight returns.