Since then, my dear sister Kayla Custer got married off and now lives about 30 minutes away with her beloved hubby and my new Brother-in-law. She also has a baby on the way!
The beautiful bride!
The anctious groom!
Me escorting mom!
Uhhh "here comes the bride!"
My sister made her own cake!
The only thing I can say about this is that no-one will know what car I'm leaving my wedding in!
The weekend after the wedding, I had an art show in Louisville. As usual we set up our booth on Friday evening at the show. Friday night we were hit be a large and powerful storm, and despite having concrete blocks tied to every corner of both of my tents, they wre swept away and crushed by the wind. Other than this "small" misfortune, I did quite well at the show.
The week after the show we travelled to Colorado to visit Grandparents out there. We were there for about a week and a half. We had a good time site-seeing and such, and a highlight for me was being able to visit DRAGON FORGE, a large blacksmith shop in Pine Colorado! Here are a couple of pictures of me with the shop owner and his son!
When we returned from Colorado, I had another show to do with about three weeks to prepare. I had quite a bit of work to do, but was completely ready, and I also bought a new tent to replace the ones I had lost. We had a good show on Saturday, but Sunday was stormy and the show shut down early. That means every single show I have done this year has had bad weather on one of the two days.
After this show, dad and I spent a couple of days preparing the shop, and then we poured half of the concrete in the shop. This is something I have been planning for and saving for, for some time.
The week after this show I had another wedding to attend to. My good friend Miss Nicole, AKA the "goatgirl" of GOAT WAGON SUTLERS got married about a week and a half ago. I was asked by the groom to make a small goat sculpture for Miss Nicole. I spent a couple of days working on it, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I believe both the bride and groom were very pleased with it too!
The groom requested that both the bride and groom's names and the date of marriage be stamped on the base plate of this piece. I emailed the bride and managed to get her signature for the names without her knowing what it was for. So the "Paul and Nicole" signature is the bride's hand.
After I returned from the wedding, dad and I once again, spent a couple of days preparing the shop (including moving my 1500 pound power hammer,) and then poured the second half of the concrete in the shop. The slab turned out very well, especially seeing that neither dad nor I have any experience pouring large quantities of concrete.
Currently, I am working to rearange the shop and get things back up and running. This involves moving equipment around, drilling holes in the concrete, and bolting down all of the heavy equipment. I currently have my forge, anvil, and power hammers back into position, but I still have to bolt them down. I have ordered a bunch of heavy-duty casters (industrial wheels for moving equipment on concrete surfaces,) and once they come in, I'll be putting them on my heavy tables.
Here are some pictures of the shop with concrete and a few of the tools back in place!
After I get my shop set back up and my primary tools back in place, I have some custom orders to get caught up on, as well as some other business ventures to puruse. Right now I've got work planned out a couple of months in advance, so I'm happy!
In the mean time, here are some more random pictures!
My new 6-inch vise!
