Photo by Mike Brown // Buy this photo
A piece of cast iron is removed from its mold still smoking hot at the Metal Museum's annual Repair Days event in 2006.
Most Memphians think of Repair Days, held this weekend at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, as an opportunity to get knives sharpened, jewelry re-soldered, and broken silver pieces fixed.
But for the crowd of metalsmiths from across the United States who will descend on Memphis for the event, it’s more of a family reunion.
Photo by Mike Brown
A piece of cast iron is removed from its mold still smoking hot at the Metal Museum's annual Repair Days event in 2006.
Acanthus Rojo Gates by artist Gary Griffin.
“It’s kind of like home,” says blacksmith Elizabeth Brim, an independent artist based at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.
Brim, who has volunteered at Repair Days since the late 1980s, is accompanying students from both Penland and Kansas State University to the Metal Museum this weekend.
“It’s a good time to see friends and make connections,” she says. “The people you meet there are all family. It’s also a fundraiser for the museum, which is important for all of us, so everybody wins.”
In years past, Brim has fixed items ranging from sculptures to wall hangings — all metal, of course.
“My favorite thing I’ve ever repaired,” she says, “was a tiny table sculpture of Paul Revere made entirely from silver spoons. He was holding a tiny bell in his hand, and it had come off, so I soldered it back on.”
Carissa Hussong, museum director, says volunteer metalsmiths pay their own way to Memphis for the event.
“We’re not compensating them,” she says of artists like Brim and metalsmith Richard Quinnell, who will travel from England to participate in Repair Days. “Some of the artists will camp out on the grounds here, and others will stay with friends. They do this because they love the institution and they love the event. We never even know how many are coming until they get here.”
Hussong describes Repair Days as “a really unique event.”
“People don’t do a lot of repairs any more,” she says. “Metalsmiths don’t make a lot of money at it, and a lot of things come our way because the average metal shop won’t want to do a $45 repair. The really great thing about Repair Days is the artists will do specialized work.”
One such artist is Gary Griffin, a Texas-born, New Mexico-based metalsmith who has made pilgrimages the past 20 years to the museum, located on the Mississippi River bluffs south of Downtown.
“It’s the only place that I know of on earth that devotes itself to metal,” says Griffin. “It’s a rarity, a highly unusual place.”
This weekend, Griffin will return to Memphis yet again, this time to deliver a pair of lectures as the Metal Museum’s Master Metalsmith for 2008.
Griffin’s latest work is on display at the museum through Nov. 9.
“I cast at the Kohler company in Wisconsin,” Griffin says of “The Penumbra Series,” which consists of 18 cast-iron frames. “I was there for four months, casting on the same line where they make bathtubs and sinks.”
“I was fortunate to achieve this. It’s one of those things that’s not widely known among the people outside the metalsmith field, but it means a lot within the profession,” he says of the Master Metalsmith honor, which tops numerous accolades including two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 20-year teaching career at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art.
“I understand that because of the award, I get to go around and look at stuff all weekend,” Griffin jokes, “but I’ll probably get in with a file or a torch somewhere.”
HIGHLIGHTS OF REPAIR DAYS
Repair Days at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, 374 Metal Museum Drive, are Friday through Sunday. Blacksmiths will be on hand to give estimates and do repairs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Entry to the museum grounds during Repair Days is free. Museum admission is $5 adults, $4 seniors, $3 students, and free with a repair stub during Repair Days. Call (901) 774-6380 or go to metalmuseum.org for more information.
Saturday
All day -- Family Fun Day, including casting, jewelry making, and blacksmithing demonstrations.
5 p.m. -- Venison stew dinner and Iron in the Hat raffle.
6 p.m. -- Opening reception and gallery talk with the 2008 Master Metalsmith Gary Griffin.
7:30 p.m. -- Art auction
Sunday
9 a.m. -- Griffin will give a “Tech Talk.”
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