This year has gotten off to a great start - it is low season for wedding rings, which means it is the time of year I get to explore other creative avenues. I'm getting up to speed using my new press to fuse and forge larger mokume billets. This allows me the freedom to use the mokume in the larger format of vessels - something I had been wanting to do for years! I feel I have just scratched the surface with these two new pieces, a goblet and a tray.  There are so many expressive possibilities with mokume patterning; I can't wait to make more.

Last Friday, March 4, we celebrated the release of the Artist Odyssey's new film "Anne Wolf: The Ancient Art of Mokume Gane." We started off with mokume gane demonstrations in the courtyard right next to the film premiere. A pretty good crowd gathered to watch the hammering and torching of metal. I enjoyed answering audience questions that ranged from geeky mokume speak about layer stacks and solid-state vs. liquid state diffusion bonding, to where I buy my materials and what kinds of gold I used.
As dusk gathered, we all moved inside to watch the film premiere, a 12-minute documentary by The Artist Odyssey. This film is part of a larger project of artist documentaries; five are up on their website now, with many more on the way.
I think the folks at Artist Odyssey did a fabulous job of telling my story and bringing to light the fascinating technique of mokume gane. Great music and graphics too! I loved how they emphasized why I only use recycled metals, and also how meaningful it is for me as part of the LGBT community to be creating wedding bands for straight and gay couples alike.
If you missed the premiere, you can see it on their website here.
After the film, we all headed up to my studio. I wanted to show some fun new equipment I have that makes the bonding and forging of my mokume gane much easier - and plus I thought folks would enjoy watching glowing hot metal be squeezed flat in a 20-ton hydraulic press! We have some video of that coming soon - need to sit down with my tech guru (aka Ame) to get that edited and uploaded.
By the end of the evening I was pretty tired, but so grateful for the love and support of friends and family. Big thanks to my assistant Francesca for working a very long day and enlisting the help of her boyfriend Marc. Thanks also to Alan Ziter and everyone at NTC for their support. And of course thanks to my sweetheart Ame for taking such great pics and video of the event, even though she was still recovering from an impressive bout of bronchitis!