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74-522: The types of objects covered by the term "folk art" vary. The art form is categorised as "divergent... of cultural production ... comprehended by its usage in Europe, where the term originated, and in the United States, where it developed for the most part along very different lines." From a European perspective, Edward Lucie-Smith described it as "Unsophisticated art, both fine and applied, which

148-520: A chisel . Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, coke , or oil. Some modern blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Induction heating methods are gaining popularity among modern blacksmiths. Color is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, and finally white. The ideal heat for most forging

222-417: A chisel, since it is lengthened by drawing it would also tend to spread in width. A smith would therefore frequently turn the chisel-to-be on its side and hammer it back down—upsetting it—to check the spread and keep the metal at the correct width. Or, if a smith needed to put a 90-degree bend in a bar and wanted a sharp corner on the outside of the bend, they would begin by hammering an unsupported end to make

296-413: A copywriter, Lucie-Smith became a full-time writer (as well as anthologist and photographer). He succeeded Philip Hobsbaum in organising The Group , a London-centred poets' group. At the beginning of the 1980s he conducted several series of interviews, Conversations with Artists , for BBC Radio 3 . He was a contributor to The London Magazine , in which he wrote art reviews, and wrote regularly for

370-549: A display of “authenticity, excellence, and significance within a particular tradition” for the artists selected. (NEA guidelines) .” In 1966, the NEA's first year of funding, support for national and regional folk festivals was identified as a priority with the first grant made in 1967 to the National Folk Festival Association. Folklife festivals are celebrated around the world to encourage and support

444-453: A great deal, to say about what passes for acceptable folk art." Historically, the training in a handicraft was done as apprenticeships with local craftsmen, such as the blacksmith or the stonemason . As the equipment and tools needed were no longer readily available in the community, these traditional crafts moved into technical schools or applied arts schools. Teaching of the craft through informal means outside of institutions has opened

518-436: A known type. Similar objects can be found in the environment made by other individuals which resemble this object. Individual pieces of folk art will reference other works in the culture, even as they show exceptional individual execution in form or design. If antecedents cannot be found for this object, it might still be a piece of art but it is not folk art. "While traditional society does not erase ego, it does focus and direct

592-420: A point results. Drawing can be accomplished with a variety of tools and methods. Two typical methods using only hammer and anvil would be hammering on the anvil horn, and hammering on the anvil face using the cross peen of a hammer. Another method for drawing is to use a tool called a fuller , or the peen of the hammer, to hasten the drawing out of a thick piece of metal. (The technique is called fullering from

666-574: A problem as a purposeful solution." Written by George Kubler and published in 1962, " The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things " describes an approach to historical change which places the history of objects and images in a larger continuum of time. The purpose of folk art is not purely decorative or aimed to have duplicated handicraft. However, since the form itself was a distinct type with its function and purpose, folk art has continued to be copied over time by different individuals. The object

740-422: A process in which the blacksmith permanently joins two pieces of iron, or a piece of iron and a piece of steel, by heating them nearly to a white heat and hammering them together. Forge welding is more difficult with modern mild steel, because it welds in a narrower temperature band. The fibrous nature of wrought iron required knowledge and skill to properly form any tool which would be subject to stress. Modern steel

814-410: A recognizable style and method in crafting its pieces, which allows products to be recognized and attributed to a single individual or workshop. This was originally articulated by Alois Riegl in his study of Volkskunst, Hausfleiss, und Hausindustrie , published in 1894. "Riegl ... stressed that the individual hand and intentions of the artist were significant, even in folk creativity. To be sure,

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888-564: A sampling of different materials, forms, and artisans involved in the production of everyday and folk art objects. Listed below are a wide-ranging assortment of labels for an eclectic group of art works. All of these genres are created outside of the institutional structures of the art world, and are not considered "fine art". There is overlap between these labeled collections, such that an object might be listed under two or more labels. Many of these groupings and individual objects might also resemble "folk art" in its aspects, however may not align to

962-498: A smith makes sure the fire is a reducing fire: a fire where, at the heart, there is a great deal of heat and very little oxygen. The smith also carefully shapes mating faces so that as they come together foreign material squeezes out as the metal is joined. To clean the faces, protect them from oxidation, and provide a medium to carry foreign material out of the weld, the smith sometimes uses flux—typically powdered borax, silica sand, or both. The smith first cleans parts to be joined with

1036-445: A traditional community. Intangible folk arts can include such forms as music and art galleries, dance and narrative structures. Objects of folk art are a subset of material culture and include objects which are experienced through the senses, by seeing and touching. Typical for material culture in art, these tangible objects can be handled, repeatedly re-experienced, and sometimes broken. They are considered works of art because of

1110-418: A wire brush, then puts them in the fire to heat. With a mix of drawing and upsetting the smith shapes the faces so that when finally brought together, the center of the weld connects first and the connection spreads outward under the hammer blows, pushing out the flux (if used) and foreign material. The dressed metal goes back in the fire, is brought near to welding heat, removed from the fire, and brushed. Flux

1184-459: Is a heroic blacksmith in Germanic mythology. The Poetic Edda states that he forged beautiful gold rings set with wonderful gems. He was captured by king Níðuðr , who cruelly hamstrung him and imprisoned him on an island. Völundr eventually had his revenge by killing Níðuðr's sons and fashioning goblets from their skulls, jewels from their eyes and a brooch from their teeth. He then raped

1258-416: Is an assistant (frequently an apprentice ) whose job is to swing a large sledgehammer in heavy forging operations, as directed by the blacksmith. In practice, the blacksmith holds the hot iron at the anvil (with tongs) in one hand, and indicates where to strike the iron by tapping it with a small hammer in the other hand. The striker then delivers a heavy blow to the indicated spot with a sledgehammer. During

1332-468: Is not smelted and cannot come from this process) " or "mild steel." The terms are never interchangeable. In preindustrial times, the material of choice for blacksmiths was wrought iron. This iron had a very low carbon content, and also included up to 5% of glassy iron silicate slag in the form of numerous very fine stringers. This slag content made the iron very tough, gave it considerable resistance to rusting, and allowed it to be more easily "forge welded,"

1406-422: Is over 2%, the metal is called cast iron , because it has a relatively low melting point and is easily cast. It is quite brittle, however, and cannot be forged so therefore not used for blacksmithing. If the carbon content is between 0.25% and 2%, the resulting metal is tool steel , which can be heat treated as discussed above. When the carbon content is below 0.25%, the metal is either " wrought iron (wrought iron

1480-505: Is produced using either the blast furnace or arc furnaces. Wrought iron was produced by a labor-intensive process called puddling , so this material is now a difficult-to-find specialty product. Modern blacksmiths generally substitute mild steel for making objects traditionally of wrought iron. Sometimes they use electrolytic-process pure iron. Many blacksmiths also incorporate materials such as bronze , copper , or brass in artistic products. Aluminum and titanium may also be forged by

1554-652: Is promote international understanding and world peace. In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts works to promote greater understanding and sustainability of cultural heritage across the United States and around the world through research, education, and community engagement. As part of this, they identify and support NEA folk art fellows in quilting, ironwork, woodcarving, pottery, embroidery, basketry, weaving, along with other related traditional arts. The NEA guidelines define as criteria for this award

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1628-408: Is recognized as being exceptional in the form and decorative motifs. Being part of the community, the craftsperson is reflecting on the community's cultural aesthetics, and may take into consideration the community's response to the handicraft. An object can be created to match the community's expectations, and the artist may design the product with unspoken cultural biases to reflect this aim. While

1702-437: Is sometimes applied, which prevents oxygen from reaching and burning the metal during forging, and it is returned to the fire. The smith now watches carefully to avoid overheating the metal. There is some challenge to this because, to see the color of the metal, the smith must remove it from the fire—exposing it to air, which can rapidly oxidize it. So the smith might probe into the fire with a bit of steel wire, prodding lightly at

1776-400: Is sufficiently corrosion-resistant that artifacts of bronze may last thousands of years relatively unscathed. Accordingly, museums frequently preserve more examples of Bronze Age metal-work than examples of artifacts from the much younger Iron Age . Buried iron artifacts may completely rust away in less than 100 years. Examples of ancient iron work still extant are very much the exception to

1850-460: Is supposedly rooted in the collective awareness of simple people. The concept of folk art is a distinctly 19th-century one. Today it carries with it a tinge of nostalgia for pre-industrial society." Folk arts , which include both performance and tangible arts, reflect the cultural life of a community associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage . Tangible folk art can include objects which historically are crafted and used within

1924-509: Is the blacksmith of the devas . The earliest references of Tvastar can be found in the Rigveda . Hephaestus (Latin: Vulcan ) was the blacksmith of the gods in Greek and Roman mythology . A supremely skilled artisan whose forge was a volcano, he constructed most of the weapons of the gods, as well as beautiful assistants for his smithy and a metal fishing-net of astonishing intricacy. He

1998-591: Is the bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat . Because they must be able to see the glowing color of the metal, some blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions, but most work in well-lit conditions. The key is to have consistent lighting, but not too bright. Direct sunlight obscures the colors. The techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat-treating, and finishing. Forging —the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering—differs from machining in that forging does not remove material. Instead,

2072-497: Is usually developed in isolation or in small communities across the country. The Smithsonian American Art Museum houses over 70 folk and self-taught artists. Folk art objects are usually produced in a one-off production process. Only one object is made at a time, either by hand or in a combination of hand and machine methods, and are not mass-produced . As a result of manual production, individual pieces are considered to be unique and usually can be differentiated from other objects of

2146-483: The International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) . Their declared mission is to “further folk art, customs and culture around the world through the organization of festivals and other cultural events, … with emphasis on dancing, folk music, folk songs and folk art.” By supporting international exchanges of folk art groups as well as the organization of festivals and other cultural events, their goal

2220-673: The New Orleans Museum of Art . He is a curator of the Bermondsey Project Space. In recent years Lucie-Smith has been promoting drawings attributed to Francis Bacon owned by Italian journalist Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino. However, Christie's, Sotheby's and the Francis Bacon Estate have not authenticated these works known as the 'Francis Bacon Italian Drawings'. Martin Harrison, the editor of

2294-443: The metal , using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith ). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There was a historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operations of a whitesmith , who usually worked in gold , silver , pewter , or

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2368-412: The 20th century and into the 21st century, this role has become increasingly unnecessary and automated through the use of trip hammers or reciprocating power hammers. When iron ore is smelted into usable metal, a certain amount of carbon is usually alloyed with the iron. (Charcoal is almost pure carbon.) The amount of carbon significantly affects the properties of the metal. If the carbon content

2442-618: The Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, does not include 'The Francis Bacon Italian Drawings' and does not see the hand of Bacon in these drawings. His uncle Euan Lucie-Smith was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment, and the first killed in World War I. Blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel , but sometimes from other metals , by forging

2516-648: The Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of the Festival of Britain . This exhibition, along with her publication The Unsophisticated Arts , exhibited folk and mass-produced consumer objects alongside contemporary art in an early instance of the popularisation of pop art in Britain. The United Nations recognizes and supports cultural heritage around the world, in particular UNESCO in partnership with

2590-456: The appropriately shaped part of the anvil. Some metals are "hot short", meaning they lose their tensile strength when heated. They become like Plasticine : although they may still be manipulated by squeezing, an attempt to stretch them, even by bending or twisting, is likely to have them crack and break apart. This is a problem for some blade-making steels, which must be worked carefully to avoid developing hidden cracks that would cause failure in

2664-659: The artist may have been obliged by group expectations to work within the norms of transmitted forms and conventions, but individual creativity – which implied personal aesthetic choices and technical virtuosity – saved received or inherited traditions from stagnating and permitted them to be renewed in each generation." Individual innovation in the production process plays an important role in the continuance of these traditional forms. Many folk art traditions like quilting, ornamental picture framing, and decoy carving continue to be practiced, and new forms continue to emerge. Contemporary outsider artists are often self-taught, and their work

2738-531: The black firescale , a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of smith is the Old English word smið meaning "blacksmith", originating from the Proto-Germanic *smiþaz meaning "skilled worker". Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of wrought iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, an anvil and

2812-550: The blacksmith's process. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin , while brass is an alloy of copper and zinc . Each material responds differently under the hammer and must be separately studied by the blacksmith. Steel with less than 0.6% carbon content cannot be hardened enough by simple heat-treatment to make useful hardened-steel tools. Hence, in what follows, wrought-iron, low-carbon-steel, and other soft unhardenable iron varieties are referred to indiscriminately as just iron . In Hindu mythology, Tvastar also known as Vishvakarma

2886-430: The choices that an individual can acceptably make… the well-socialized person will find the limits are not inhibiting but helpful… Where traditions are healthy the works of different artists are more similar than they are different; they are more uniform than personal." Tradition in folk art emerges through the passing of information from one generation to another. Through generations of family lines, family members pass down

2960-596: The copper used by the Mediterranean World came from the island of Cyprus . Most of the tin came from the Cornwall region of the island of Great Britain , transported by sea-borne Phoenician and Greek traders. Copper and bronze cannot be hardened by heat-treatment, they can only be hardened by cold working . To accomplish this, a piece of bronze is lightly hammered for a long period of time. The localized stress-cycling causes work hardening by changing

3034-418: The culture is typically visible in the final product. Folk art is designed in different shapes, sizes and forms. It traditionally uses the materials which are at hand in the locality and reproduces familiar shapes and forms. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has compiled a page of storied objects that have been part of one of their annual folklife festivals . The list below includes

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3108-465: The curve had been properly shaped. In the primary operation was the bend, but the drawing and upsetting are done to refine the shape. Welding is the joining of the same or similar kind of metal. A modern blacksmith has a range of options and tools to accomplish this. The basic types of welding commonly employed in a modern workshop include traditional forge welding as well as modern methods, including oxyacetylene and arc welding . In forge welding,

3182-427: The curved bend. Then, to "fatten up" the outside radius of the bend, one or both arms of the bend would need to be pushed back to fill the outer radius of the curve. So they would hammer the ends of the stock down into the bend, 'upsetting' it at the point of the bend. They would then dress the bend by drawing the sides of the bend to keep the correct thickness. The hammering would continue—upsetting and then drawing—until

3256-406: The defining characteristics outlined above. Folk artworks, styles and motifs have inspired various artists. For example, Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks. Natalia Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional Russian popular prints called luboks . In 1951, artist, writer and curator Barbara Jones organised the exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade at

3330-400: The education and community engagement of diverse ethnic communities. Edward Lucie-Smith John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith (born 27 February 1933), known as Edward Lucie-Smith , is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred books, his subjects gradually shifting around

3404-473: The finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is variously called a smithy , a forge , or a blacksmith's shop . While there are many professions who work with metal, such as farriers , wheelwrights , and armorers , in former times the blacksmith had a general knowledge of how to make and repair many things, from the most complex of weapons and armor to simple things like nails or lengths of chain. The "black" in "blacksmith" refers to

3478-481: The flat face of the hammer. Heating iron to a "forging heat" allows bending as if it were a soft, ductile metal, like copper or silver. Bending can be done with the hammer over the horn or edge of the anvil or by inserting a bending fork into the hardy hole (the square hole in the top of the anvil), placing the work piece between the tines of the fork, and bending the material to the desired angle. Bends can be dressed and tightened, or widened, by hammering them over

3552-427: The future. Though rarely hand-worked, titanium is notably hot short. Even such common smithing processes as decoratively twisting a bar are impossible with it. Upsetting is the process of making metal thicker in one dimension through shortening in the other. One form is to heat the end of a rod and then hammer on it as one would drive a nail: the rod gets shorter, and the hot part widens. An alternative to hammering on

3626-495: The genre to artists who may face barrier to entry in other disciplines. Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis , for example, suffered from an undiagnosed congenital illness, making formal art schooling a challenge. Despite barriers to formal education, Lewis became one of Canada's most famous folk artists, creating thousands of paintings of life in Nova Scotia . The object is recognizable within its cultural framework as being of

3700-484: The god of blacksmiths, warriors, hunters and others who work with iron is one of the pantheon of Orisha traditionally worshipped by the Yoruba people of Nigeria . Gold , silver , and copper all occur in nature in their native states , as reasonably pure metals – humans probably worked these metals first. These metals are all quite malleable , and humans' initial development of hammering techniques

3774-580: The hero known to the Ossetians as Kurdalægon and the Circassians as Tlepsh is a blacksmith and skilled craftsman whose exploits exhibit shamanic features, sometimes bearing comparison to those of the Scandinavian deity Odin . One of his greatest feats is acting as a type of male midwife to the hero Xamyc , who has been made the carrier of the embryo of his son Batraz by his dying wife

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3848-474: The hot end is to place the hot end on the anvil and hammer on the cold end. Punching may be done to create a decorative pattern, or to make a hole. For example, in preparation for making a hammerhead, a smith would punch a hole in a heavy bar or rod for the hammer handle. Punching is not limited to depressions and holes. It also includes cutting, slitting, and drifting—all done with a chisel. The five basic forging processes are often combined to produce and refine

3922-554: The independent magazine ArtReview from the 1960s until the 2000s. A prolific writer, he has written more than one hundred books in total on a variety of subjects, chiefly art history as well as biographies and poetry. In addition he has curated a number of art exhibitions, including three Peter Moores projects at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool , The New British Painting (1988–1990) and two retrospectives at

3996-571: The king's daughter, after drugging her with strong beer, and escaped, laughing, on wings of his own making, boasting that he had fathered a child upon her. Seppo Ilmarinen , the Eternal Hammerer, blacksmith and inventor in the Kalevala , is an archetypal artificer from Finnish mythology. Tubal-Cain is mentioned in the book of Genesis of the Torah as the original smith. Ogun ,

4070-484: The knowledge, information, skills and tools needed to continue the creation of one's folk art. Examples are Leon “Peck” Clark, a Mississippi basket maker, who learned his skills from a community member; George Lopez of Cordova, New Mexico, who is a sixth-generation santos carver whose children also carve; and the Yorok-Karok basket weavers, who explain that relatives generally taught them to weave.” The known type of

4144-682: The late 1960s from mostly literature to mostly art. Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica , the son of Mary Frances (née Lushington) and John Dudley Lucie-Smith. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1946. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury , then spent time in Paris . In 1954, he received a Bachelor of Arts from Merton College, Oxford . After serving in the Royal Air Force as an education officer and working as

4218-457: The mating faces. When the end of the wire sticks on to the metal, it is at the right temperature (a small weld forms where the wire touches the mating face, so it sticks). The smith commonly places the metal in the fire so he can see it without letting surrounding air contact the surface. (Note that smiths don't always use flux, especially in the UK.) Now the smith moves with rapid purpose, quickly taking

4292-455: The metal by reducing one or both of the other two dimensions. As the depth is reduced, or the width narrowed, the piece is lengthened or "drawn out." As an example of drawing, a smith making a chisel might flatten a square bar of steel, lengthening the metal, reducing its depth but keeping its width consistent. Drawing does not have to be uniform. A taper can result as in making a wedge or a woodworking chisel blade. If tapered in two dimensions,

4366-433: The metal from the fire to the anvil and bringing the mating faces together. A few light hammer taps bring the mating faces into complete contact and squeeze out the flux—and finally, the smith returns the work to the fire. The weld begins with the taps, but often the joint is weak and incomplete, so the smith reheats the joint to welding temperature and works the weld with light blows to "set" the weld and finally to dress it to

4440-622: The norm. Concurrent with the advent of alphabetic characters in the Iron Age , humans became aware of the metal iron . However, in earlier ages, iron's qualities, in contrast to those of bronze, were not generally understood. Iron artifacts , composed of meteoric iron , have the chemical composition containing up to 40% nickel . As this source of this iron is extremely rare and fortuitous, little development of smithing skills peculiar to iron can be assumed to have occurred. That we still possess any such artifacts of meteoric iron may be ascribed to

4514-402: The object must be, or have originally been, utilitarian; it was created to serve some function in the daily life of the household or the community. This is the reason the design continues to be made. Since the form itself had function and purpose, it was duplicated over time in various locations by different individuals. A book on the history of art states that "every man-made thing arises from

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4588-436: The pieces to join are heated to what is generally referred to as welding heat . For mild steel most smiths judge this temperature by color: the metal glows an intense yellow or white. At this temperature the steel is near molten. Any foreign material in the weld, such as the oxides or "scale" that typically form in the fire, can weaken it and cause it to fail. Thus the mating surfaces to be joined must be kept clean. To this end

4662-528: The same type. In his essay on "Folk Objects", folklorist Simon Bronner references preindustrial modes of production, but folk art objects continue to be made as unique crafted pieces by folk artisans. "The notion of folk objects tends to emphasize the handmade over machine manufactured. Folk objects imply a mode of production common to preindustrial communal society where knowledge and skills were personal and traditional." Folk art does not need to be old; it continues to be hand-crafted today in many regions around

4736-420: The shape. Depending on the intended use of the piece, a blacksmith may finish it in a number of ways: A range of treatments and finishes can inhibit oxidation and enhance or change the appearance of the piece. An experienced smith selects the finish based on the metal and on the intended use of the item. Finishes include (among others): paint, varnish, bluing , browning , oil, and wax. A blacksmith's striker

4810-418: The shapes necessary for finished products. For example, to fashion a cross-peen hammer head, a smith would start with a bar roughly the diameter of the hammer face: the handle hole would be punched and drifted (widened by inserting or passing a larger tool through it), the head would be cut (punched, but with a wedge), the peen would be drawn to a wedge, and the face would be dressed by upsetting. As with making

4884-424: The shared form indicates a shared culture, innovation can enable the individual artisan to embody their own vision. This can be a representation of manipulating collective and individual culture, within the traditional folk art production. "For art to progress, its unity must be dismantled so that certain of its aspects can be freed for exploration, while others shrink from attention." This dichotomous representation of

4958-454: The size and shape of the metal's crystals . The hardened bronze can then be ground to sharpen it to make edged tools. Clocksmiths as recently as the 19th century used work hardening techniques to harden the teeth of brass gears and ratchets . Tapping on just the teeth produced harder teeth, with superior wear-resistance. By contrast, the rest of the gear was left in a softer and tougher state, more capable of resisting cracking. Bronze

5032-429: The smith hammers the iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations (except when trimming waste) by smiths usually re-arrange metal around the hole, rather than drilling it out as swarf . Forging uses seven basic operations or techniques: These operations generally require at least a hammer and anvil , but smiths also use other tools and techniques to accommodate odd-sized or repetitive jobs. Drawing lengthens

5106-450: The technical execution of an existing form and design; the skill might be seen in the precision of the form, the surface decoration or in the beauty of the finished product. As a folk art, these objects share several characteristics that distinguish them from other artifacts of material culture. The object is created by a single artisan or team of artisans. The craft-person works within an established cultural framework. The folk art has

5180-478: The tool.) Fullering consists of hammering a series of indentations with corresponding ridges, perpendicular to the long section of the piece being drawn. The resulting effect looks somewhat like waves along the top of the piece. Then the smith turns the hammer over to use the flat face to hammer the tops of the ridges down level with the bottoms of the indentations. This forces the metal to grow in length (and width if left unchecked) much faster than just hammering with

5254-492: The water-sprite Lady Isp, who spits it between his shoulder blades, where it forms a womb-like cyst. Kurdalaegon prepares a type of tower or scaffold above a quenching bath for Xamyc, and, when the time is right, lances the cyst to liberate the infant hero Batraz as a newborn babe of white-hot steel , whom Kurdalægon then quenches like a newly forged sword. The Anglo-Saxon Wayland Smith , known in Old Norse as Völundr ,

5328-404: The world. The design and production of folk art is learned and taught informally or formally; folk artists are not self-taught. Folk art does not aim for individualistic expression. Instead, "the concept of group art implies, indeed requires, that artists acquire their abilities, both manual and intellectual, at least in part from communication with others. The community has something, usually

5402-635: Was the god of metalworking, fire, and craftsmen. In Celtic mythology , the role of Smith is held by eponymous (their names do mean 'smith') characters : Goibhniu (Irish myths of the Tuatha Dé Danann cycle) or Gofannon (Welsh myths/ the Mabinogion ). Brigid or Brigit, an Irish goddess , is sometimes described as the patroness of blacksmiths. In the Nart mythology of the Caucasus

5476-637: Was undoubtedly applied to these metals. During the Chalcolithic era and the Bronze Age , humans in the Mideast learned how to smelt , melt , cast , rivet , and (to a limited extent) forge copper and bronze. Bronze is an alloy of copper and approximately 10% to 20% Tin . Bronze is superior to just copper, by being harder, being more resistant to corrosion, and by having a lower melting point (thereby requiring less fuel to melt and cast). Much of

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