It was a beautiful day in Nettleton, Missouri, where Phil and Margie hosted the July meeting.
Phil and Margie's friend, Joni Loxterman baked some fantastic cakes for the lunch dessert, including this anvil cake.
There were demos by Phil himself.
Plenty of chairs were set up both inside and out for the 87 attendees.
Sheri and Bob (that's "Bob the Knife") were celebrating their 46th wedding anniversary. Way to go guys. May God bless you all with many more.
Lunch was delicious, it included BBQ beef, Phil's famous baked beans, chips, and many desserts.
The trade item was a back scratcher.
As usual "Iron in the Hat" draws a lot of attention. For a dollar you get a raffle ticket and drop it in the cup for the item of your choice.
Karen even won Nathan Robertson's 100 Bradley trip hammer in the "Iron in the Hat" raffle. She was one happy girl!! (Just kidding Nathan!) Thank you Phil and Margie for a great day, great food, and genuine camaraderie.
It was another successful event. It's an awesome time, full of some great teaching, with great demonstrators, and lots of fellowship with wonderful people.
Double striking always draws a crowd. Here Ken Jansen and my blacksmith work together, teaching a tong making class.
It's always a joint effort to get everything set up.
The first night, all the workers join in on a pot luck dinner. There is usually Ken's famous grilled venison brats, hot dogs, Steve's delicious deep fried turkey, my turnip kraut, Phil's best baked beans ever, and so much more. This year Thomas brought 2 loaves of his homemade renaissance bread, one of which contained almonds, raisins, and orange peel. We had more desserts than ever, chocolate chip cake, cherry cake, oatmeal cake, chocolate cake with chocolate glaze, the list went on and on.
John and Eileen made the best chili and it contained pork and sausage, no ground beef! Yummy!
Speaking of food, who knew the packaged crackers could be used for measuring? Only Roger and Steve know that.
This is the T-shirt quilt I made and donated to our auction. It bought $225.00. I was well pleased. Thank you Denny and Jenny for purchasing it.
Jo teaches one of her many broom making classes.
Margie was back to teach sock monkey and/or sock elephant class.
Walking through the gallery you see some of the finest example of what our members make. This little box in front was unbelievable! Good job, Burt Mannell!
Don Nichols made this duck.
Pat McCarty always makes and donates the much sought after BAM trunks!
This was one of the 3 tool boxes that was raffled off. Mike Gentsch made the boxes and members donate all the tools.
The cattails were made by Don Nichols with Esther Digh being the high bidder at the auction.
This cross made by Denny Quinn has a lot of special meanings. I hope if you enlarge the picture, you can read his story.
Don Anders shows his fire place set off.
Jim Friel made this unbelievable dragon!!!!!!!!!!!!
Esther Digh made this art work that contains enameled wares.
These are two items my hubby made. Both of them are made of wrought iron. The axe has pewter inlays. It was sold at the Saturday night benefit auction and brought $370. A great contribution to BAM.
Bob Stormer made this unique camping grill.
Joe Hurley made this entitled Guardian.
There was a forging contest. This year's contest was to see which team could hot punch two holes the quickest.
Guess you had to be there . . .this was a humorous award to my blacksmith for some comments he made at a recent class that he helped teach.
Master blacksmith Peter Ross demonstrated for two days. His class was always full. He worked at Colonial Williamsburg for 23 years.
This was my booth for the 3+ days, the ladies Boutique. We sold lots of t-shirts, cookies, iron ware, mugs, hats, bumper stickers, and jewelry.
Another demonstrator was James Crowell. He has been certified as a master bladesmith since 1986. His class was always packed.
We can always count on Al from Finney Book company to bring wonderful books on every subject the blacksmiths need. He even brings quilting books too. It might have something to do with his wife being a quilter! In fact Terri had a quilt in the Paducah quilt show just a few weeks ago.
Ray Carpenter brings a big display. I always find something in his booth. It's usually something my husband has to finish for me.
Roger on his bike. Roger . . . what can I say, it's just Roger! Cute butt patch!
Two old friends came by. A long drive, but so great to see them in person. Right pink ladies?!
The hammer class was full.
Nathan and Bill demonstrate just how it's done.
How many blacksmiths does it take to forge a big spike? Apparently 6!
Sid and his daughter Kari always tail gate. Sam, Kari's 5 year old son, has grown in the 5 years he's been coming to the conference, literally! They were the owners of Little Giant trip hammer company.
Steve got a treatment from Karen Lucke, a reflexologist. Her husband was in the hammer class so she set up shop. After I got finished teasing Steve about his treatment, I went for a foot treatment. OMG, I'd do it again in a minute. It made my hurting feet feel so much better.
The conference is all about teaching, keeping the art alive, and getting the young interested in the craft. Here 13 year old Colten Kiso double strikes with my blacksmith.
Here he shows off the two pair of tongs he made. Way to go Colten!!!
The last activity at the conference is the drawing of the raffle for the tool boxes. It's done after all the clean up is finished. Not many people are still around at this point. However 5 year old Aaron was still there. He was asked to draw the winning tickets. You cannot believe the look on his face when he found out that he had drawn his Dad's ticket for one of the toolboxes. I'm not sure who was more excited Aaron, or his daddy, Steve McCarthy. I love this picture of Aaron and his daddy walking away with one awesome tool box full of blacksmith tools. I can hardly wait for BAM Conference 2015!
When we ended our craft shows last fall we set up a store in our basement. It is now time to close it temporarily. You see we have our first craft show this Saturday. We will be at the Copper Kettle restaurant in Ashland from 8 to 5 on Saturday. It's their Mountain Man show.
