So, I'm in Philadelphia and I go out for dinner. I take a little side trip to a bookstore and walking home when something catches my eye. It is a wrought iron gate and I recognize it right away from the book on Francis Whittaker (he worked for a time for Samuel Yellin and was one of the most respected smiths in the last half of the 20th century.) Anyway, I found a picture on the Wikipedia site for Yellin and if this is not the same gate, it is very close to it.
In looking at this gate, I was very humbled. The overal size was very impressive. The work was top notch. It made me realize what pro smiths with enough helpers can do. On closer investigation there was something that made me feel really good and its tough to say this without sounding arrogant.
There was nothing on that gate that I couldn't do today. Like most arts, its just a matter of learning the basics. As impressive as the gate was, as well designed as it was, it was fairly basic shaping, welding, forming, etc... Also, there were some basic mistakes in the piece. Makes me wonder if I'm not too hard on myself sometimes...
Don't get me wrong, very nice piece, very impressive and it makes me humble to see something like that.
Oh, the sad part? The building is up for sale. I worry that the new owners might just remove the gate in favor of a more modern appearance.
A chronicle of my attempts to create an early clock using only traditional techniques.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Wow, encouraging, humbling and sad... All from a gate...
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4 comments:
If they do we'll have to take a little trip up there and, uh, *talk* with them about it.
Pennsylvania is famous for tearing down history. Find any rural crossroads north of Philly, and look for a Sheetz or a Wawa- chances are that there was a mid-1700's stone tavern, inn, or farmhouse on that spot five years ago.
We lived in Whitehall Township, about 50 miles north of Philly for too many years (about four). They were always tearing down old stuff to build new parking lots.
I want to know how anyone keeps something that big reasonably straight. I have a hard enough time with 4 x 3 foot pieces.
Well, I was talking to the people at the Rosenbach museum yesterday (they have a bunch of Yellin's stuff) and they said the chance of someone taking those gates out is very small. Apparently most of the building is already condos. The part that I saw for sale was just the ground floor level. The gates are well known as a landmark and probably aren't going anywhere.Also, I did get a chance to see some of Yellin's personal work. It was absolutely incredible. I was definitely impressed with it. I will post some details on that later.Knit, I know what you mean about keeping a piece of metal straight, especially when you have to do a fair amount of work on it. Its easy to make a scroll, its difficult to make a piece of metal truly straight.
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