Student Testimonial – Fearless Fire Eating

2017-02-09T11:39:23-08:00

Yes Mom, I ate fire this weekend . . .

Every once in a while you do something that you know you can’t tell your mom about until after you’ve done it. You know that taking a class called Fearless Fire Eating is just not really going to go over very well with mom.

It’s really quite safe, though you know you’ll never convince mom of that. From what Kristina, our instructor said, it’s the safest fire performance art, since you have complete control over the fire.

 

It’s not like you’re spinning or swinging it around, where gravity has the control.

Once again you could try telling mom this, but she’ll have fingers in her ears yelling La, La, La. So yeah, I chickened out and didn’t tell her until after the class. My ears are still ringing from the loud exclamation over the phone of “YOU DID WHAT!”

Then of course there comes the “why” question. Insert loud mom voice – “WHY ON EARTH?!” You stop and think about making a crack about because it’s closer than the moon, but decide against it.

Really I took the class because of my work. See, I work in the Marketing Department here at The Crucible; my co-worker Jan and I (who are basically the whole marketing department) decided to take it together. Hey, what better way to get people to swing by our information table at events than to eat fire, right? Plus what better way to promote a class than taking it yourself? As you might well expect, these reasons didn’t go over so well with mom. I’m sure she thinks I’m crazy and she is looking for a therapist for me as we speak.

Mom wasn’t so open to hear about me singeing off arm hair, but I’m sure all of you are much more interested in the fiery details. So, here we go.

Once we got though all the safety stuff and made our own fire eating torches we got down to the fiery fun. First she had us start with basic rubbing alcohol as fuel. Yep, the stuff you buy at Longs Drugs. It provides a smaller flame for us to start off with.

We lit our torches and passed our hands over the flame to get acquainted with fire. Then we tapped the torch to the palms of our hands and rolled it along our arms. Basically lighting ourselves on fire. Yes we are crazy people. It didn’t hurt though. The flame just sat there on your skin until the alcohol burned off or you lightly shook your arm or hand to put it out.

Then we moved to the reason we were

Student Testimonial – Fearless Fire Eating2017-02-09T11:39:23-08:00

Parent Testimonial – Summer Camp

2017-02-09T11:39:23-08:00

My 12-year old daughter and 10-year old son recently attended two sessions of summer camp, at The Crucible, and I am moved to write my very first blog.  When my kids attended their first summer session in June, I was a full-time working mom, happy to have a cool and creative safe place to send my budding artists. Both kids were thrilled at taking such cool classes and were a part of the selection process in choosing classes.  

My girl was a bit apprehensive but enjoyed being the lone girl in the all male blacksmithing and welding courses.

 

She not only enjoyed her experience in the classroom but absolutely loved the fact that the teachers did not let her “feel like the only girl” and did not make a big deal out of any extra time or attention they spent introducing her to the art form and tools.  She felt strong and after her second day of class exclaimed, “Mom – please sign me up for more classes in July; I always thought I was clumsy, but I’m not and didn’t even hurt myself!” 

My son is easy-going but a bit of a loner – so I was just thrilled to see him make friends and be so engaged — not just with his campmates, but also with the teachers and staff at the Crucible.  Everyone made it a point to talk to the kids in a down-to-earth, respectful manner that made them feel confident in being the little creative and expressive beings that they are … not just a kid in day camp.  And as I observed the interaction between student and staff/teacher, I had the feeling that the same communication rhythm and flow was no different than with adult students who enroll for classes.

As a New Yorker, I had to ask myself, “What is wrong with this picture? Where is the danger or lapse in security that makes this not as cool as it appears?”  Well, sometimes the universe allows you to get the answers you are seeking. By the time my kids were ready for the July session, my contract employment had ended, and my finances and schedule were both in a shambles.  I volunteered in The Crucible office that week while my kids were in the July camp and got to see the daily habits and structure of the workplace/studio first-hand. The staff members are on point from the moment they enter the facility.  They provide the kids with snacks, love,

Parent Testimonial – Summer Camp2017-02-09T11:39:23-08:00

Student Testimonial – Blacksmithing Taster

2020-12-03T11:57:07-08:00

Give ‘Em Hill: I am Iron Woman

I HAVE AN IRON coat hook, and I’m so proud. It’s about six inches long, tapered, then curved into a shape any self-respecting single-handed pirate captain would covet. The non-hook end is flattened out and has a hole, so as to screw it to a wall for handy coat-hanging purposes. I’ve been showing it off every chance I get. Hi, Mr. UPS-man-at-my-front-door. Wanna see my coat hook? Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it cool? No applause necess- oh, if you must.

Now being in possession of a coat hook may not seem terribly exciting to you, unless your coats are strewn all over the floor in a big mess, and then you’d appreciate one. But to me, this hook is even more than a practical organizing tool. To me, it is a solid testament to persistence, fortitude and stalwart forearm flexors, because I did not merely pick this coat hook up at Lowe’s. Nay, I forged this fine firm fixture all by myself and I have the blisters — I mean, calluses in training — to prove it.

Yea, I blacksmithed, heating a small piece of iron in a 2,500-degree forge (a big, hot, metal box which apparently contains the surface of the sun) and beating the living daylights and all my aggression out of it with a 2-pound hammer on an anvil the size of a baby rhino, heating it again and pounding it and pounding it more in some time-warped medieval game of Whac-a-Mole, then heating it, bending it, twisting it like a Twizzler, and tada — a coat hook for the ages and for the $40 brown leather jacket I got at Nordstrom Rack. And I am proud.

Of course, this feat was not accomplished in my kitchen oven. Rather, it took place in a three-hour sampler class May 8 at The Crucible, the fine-and-industrial arts complex in a giant West Oakland warehouse where they do things like weld and carve and saw and pound and make huge metal sculptures, produce fire operas and shape delicate glass vases with mere puffs of breath.

It’s not clear what possessed me to take blacksmithing, other than it’s something I hadn’t done before, and you never know when you might need an emergency set of horseshoes. And then there’s the anti-computer aspect, shunning the modern dependency on broadbands and wi-fis and communications satellites up there somewhere in the dark, and doing something real. It’s amazing how much stuff the average person doesn’t know how to do. Not that everyone needs to know how to forge a coat hook, but really — how about changing a tire? (My friend recently had a flat and had never put a spare on before, but she got out the manual and the jack and started yanking on lug nuts. A total of three men came by, separately, and said, “I’d help you, but I don’t know how to change a tire,” then started texting someone. Scary.)

In

Student Testimonial – Blacksmithing Taster2020-12-03T11:57:07-08:00
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