Registration | Participate | Keynote Artists | Schedule

Festival of Fire 2019
Photo credit Dan Crowther

September 10-12, 2021

Festival of Fire celebrates the transformative nature of fire.

This annual collaborative event is a weekend-long exploration of the productive and performative aspects of fire in making art.

The exciting schedule includes hands-on workshops, artist talks, demonstrations, performances, and exhibitions, all centered around fire. Come together to share techniques, ideas, and resources in iron casting, wood fired ceramics, glass blowing, blacksmithing, and more. Tours, gallery showings, and on-site concessions will complete the festival atmosphere and make it fun for the entire family.

Don’t miss the spectacle and wonder of the Festival of Fire!

2021 Keynote Artists:

James Gillaspie
Blacksmithing

Julia and Robin Rogers
Glass Blowing

Nikki Moser
Iron Casting

Registration

Registration:

Friday September 10 - Sunday September 12
Registration includes camping and meals.

Saturday only: $75
Friday-Sunday: $150
Thursday-Sunday: $200

***All guests are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to provide proof.***

If you are registering a group or have any questions, please email us at info@salemartworks.org.

Volunteer

We have a limited number of full and partial subsidized volunteer positions available for participants who want to work in exchange for registration. Apply now!

Participate

BLACKSMITHING
MAKE YOUR OWN MEDIEVAL STEEL YORK HELMET

Medieval armor specialist James Arlen Gillaspie will be instructing participants in the fabrication of steel helmets patterned around ones in use in the early middle ages specifically the York helmet.

This is a two-day workshop but some students may be finished by the end of day one.

James Gillaspie will be hosting a keynote speech as part of our Festival of Fire on Friday 9/10/21 at SAW titled, “Late Medieval/Renaissance Plate Armour; An Exercise in Practical and Artistic Blacksmithing.”

Parent with child under 12 may work together for the price of one participant.

10 AM to 5 PM
Saturday 9/11/21
Sunday 9/12/21

WELDING BAY
BEGINNER WELDING WORKSHOP

In this intensive workshop participants will observe and practice several fundamental techniques used in metal fabrication. Time will be split between demonstration and assisted hands on practice. The instructor will demonstrate safe and proper use of a variety of equipment, then students will choose metal scrap material to create a sculpture of their own design. Techniques covered include heating, bending, and cutting using an oxy-actylene torch, cutting using plasma cutter, and MIG welding.

Saturday 9/11: 10 AM - 5 PM

IRON POUR
BRING OR MAKE MOLDS

The iron department offers an artist talk and production pour. Friday evening showcases our iron keynote artist with an artist talk. Saturday we’ll have a production iron pour all day where participants are invited to bring molds to have cast in metal. The production Iron Pour is a chance for teams from across the nation to come together for a hands on opportunity to share techniques, ideas, and resources in iron casting. Participants spend the weekend working in groups to prepare and pour molds, furnace, and pour site.

SCRATCH BLOCK WORKSHOP

Participants will have the opportunity to make their very own cast iron tile sand mold in this drop in workshop!

Hand off your mold to our team to pour in iron and once the pour is over we will clean up the tile for you to take home!

Saturday 9/11: 10 AM - 3 PM

Glass Shop
3 Day Beginner Glass Sculpting Workshop

Students will move away from the basic vessel and pursue more sculptural endeavors with an emphasis on teamwork in the glass studio. It is recommended that students bring a sketchbook and are prepared to bring their ideas on paper into fruition three dimensionally. Both hollow and solid glass sculpting techniques will be covered. We will talk texture, patterns, bit building, and breaking down forms step by step, and the different methods that can be used to achieve completing a finished glass sculpture.

A prior beginner glass class will be necessary for this course.

Friday 9/10: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Saturday 9/11: 3:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Sunday 9/12: 10 AM - 1:00 PM

WOOD KILN BUILDING SYMPOSIUM
CERAMIC WORKSHOP

Salem Art Works invites teams to build and fire small wood-fired ceramic kilns. Specific refractory materials are provided to build the kiln (listed below,) teams must create their design in advance. During the symposium teams will construct their kiln and must be finished by 5 pm Friday, Kilns will be loaded with ceramic work made by the team members, fired for a maximum of 24 hours, and unloaded on Sunday late afternoon.

Teams, will received following materials for building the kilns:
150 - 2.5” x 4.5” x 9” Soft Brick
100 - 2.5” x 4.5” x 9” Hard Brick
3 - 12” x 24” silicon carbide shelves
2 - 12” x 12” shelves and posts for stacking interior of kiln (if needed)
1/4 cord of hardwood
1/4 cord of pine
Small bucket of fire clay mortar
Tractor buckets full of Sand

Meet our 2021 Keynote Artists

James Gillaspie
Late Medieval / Renaissance Plate Armour; An Exercise in Practical and Artistic Blacksmithing.

I am a native Arizonan, born and raised in Yuma.  My first fields of study were physics and mathematics. After giving my left cerebral hemisphere a good workout, I decided to switch tracks and go back to my first great love, art.  I have always had compelling interests in art, history, martial arts, and steel.  In addition, I have been trained in the field of high - fashion 10jewelry at Northern Arizona University, and gone to countless blacksmithing workshops.  Armour, whether medieval or futuristic, is the logical intersection of these interests.  High - fashion jewelry makes a statement by accessorising dress; armour has an advantage in that it is dress.  It is also wearable sculpture. For over a decade now, I have cleaned/repaired/ restored Late Medieval / Renaissance armour and weapons.  I have occasionally worked in film. 

Julia and Robin Rogers
Collaboration is Life!

Physically and metaphorically we put our minds, hearts and hands together to create sculptural works of art. Our collaborative process begins with a series of conversations that meld common visions and ideas into designs for a piece or series of works. We are enlivened by the inherent qualities of molten glass; its luminosity, viscosity, and seductive flow. Inspiration is drawn from the natural world, society, psychology, architecture, family life, music and science. We are two artists living, breathing, and working together.  Our minds never stop imagining the possibilities of what can be explored, discovered, shared, and executed.

Nikki Moser
A Curious and Fabulous Circus

It is possible all this trouble started because my parents took us camping on weekends. Something about a campground, people pulling rigs and assembling tents, in an unfamiliar place, sharing pools, creeks, firepits and bathhouses, swapping stories….it was a fishbowl of other peoples experiences and expectations, longings and passions. For a long weekend or a few weeks you become part of a group, randomly and temporally. My work has manifested itself in cast iron, printmaking, photography, textiles, mixed media, video, sound. Driven by a desire to assemble objects and ideas in ways that recast light, propose an alternate dialog and subtly implicate the viewer, the media corresponds intimately to the concepts. More often than not the “work” includes a community participation, an effort to engage and reflect community. Projects like The Marcellus Shale, Keystone Iron Works, and Confluence Sculpture Park all span the private of the studio and the public of community collaboration. Building collaborative, engaged and dynamic community platforms for all to be involved in the arts has been at the core of my efforts. I wants us to all be a part of a curious and fabulous Circus. For me it always seems to be about the “we”.

Schedule

With Support FROM:

Sharon Karmazin