Greetings readership of Gerwerken's blog, I am a guest writer, her husband. You may have noticed me in such famous editions such as "the garden box" and occasionally popping up as the recipient of some of her crafty resourcefulness. When Gerwerken first asked me to guest-blog for her, I thought "I really don't know what I'd say. I have a Wordpress™ account, but never post anything - where would I even start?" Sadly, I'm still sort of stuck there. One possible angle I see is the almost contrary nature that our respective craft endeavors have when compared side-by-side. Gerwerken leans toward knitting, sewing, soap-making and organization among others - many things reflective of an altruistic and ecologically sound approach to life.

While not an anarchistic hellion (usually), most of my creative pursuits involve scrap metal, noisy exhausts, combustable substances, fire, and hitting things with hammers. When I'm at my most creative, there's usually safety-goggles required, specific instructions to watch for falling objects, and usually something burning somewhere.

Yin and Yang, probably a very good illustrative metaphor.

Let me back up. If you're reading this, you're probably already quite familiar with what Gerwerken is all about, and equally dumbfounded as I am about how those two kids turned out so adorable.

I'm an aspiring blacksmith, that's my goal. Having attended an hammer-in (informal blacksmith gathering), made a bailing tine knife with my own two hands, I'm hooked. Only, I didn't have anything besides a desire to learn when I got started. That was about a year ago.

To date, things are progressing pretty well. Having a background as a bicycle-mechanic, and the accompanying pragmatic mindset that comes along with it, I started working on the basics; identify the equipment needed to start smithing, find a place to work, set up shop. The more I studied, the more I realized that much of the equipment I needed (tables, forges, kilns, implements) could be build out of scrap metal easily obtained from a junk yard. That was all I needed - We're off to the races.

That, in a nutshell, is the craftiest activity I have. I'm still learning, I haven't started smithing, but I'm on my way.

I work on cars, I weld, I fabricate, I build bikes, I ride bikes, I read, and now - I blog.

Hi.