primitive
brass
primitive brass jason blasso
C H A RY B D I S P R E S S new york
Published by Charybdis Press New York 2017 Charybdis Press Some rights reserved Printed and bound in the USA 15 14 13 12 4 3 2 1 First Edition http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Pendants, writing, photos, layout and design by Jason Blasso primitive brass is set in gotham, CiscoSerif, Rockwell & Whitman www.charybdispress.com
for the old school benching mechanics with delicate sensibilities
INTRO Being precision sheet metal fabricators, my brother and I wanted to learn more about how sheet metal fabrication was done before complex machines like the NC turret punch press, laser, and water jets were invented and put on the market. So, we began doing some research on the techniques and my brother, being a gearhead, started reading up on how car panels were cut and formed using bead rollers, shrinker-stretchers, English wheels, and other equipment. He nosed a bit deeper and learned about hammering and handforming which lead him to look online to see if any of these old manual machines were available for purchase. The best of the lot, a company by the name of Pexto, was, and still is, in business making good, durable equipment that outclassed the other cheap Chinese imports. We bought a bead roller from one of their distributors and, at about the same time, my brother found an old Pexto Benching Table for sale online. We drove to Staten Island to pick it up and haggled with the seller to include the dozen or so stakes that you slide into the table to bench parts. The table was made of robust, rich wood scored by years of use in an old technical college. The stakes were made of heavy cast iron and came in many different shapes: anvil, horn, and saddle. We didn’t know the use of any of them. So, we began researching their functions when we got the table back to the shop. While I was reading up on the stakes, I began tooling around with some small brass pieces we had left over from a discontinued job. The end result is this Primitive Brass collection of pendants. Since it was my first attempt at making jewelry and using old metalforming equipment, the name seemed to fit the style and manner of its manufacture. One last thing to note: All the pendants started out as the flat piece you see on the cover. Enjoy.
primitive brass
ghost cape
phoenix fire
sun yolk
pelagic ripple
dawn light
king gingham
cosmic effervescence
the aleph
soul stroll
the crucible
yellow sails
cemetery vase
good fences
rolling boil
greek columns
womb door
storm clouds
deep space
elephant skin
frog spawn
greenman masque
desert dune
pond ripple
air foil
barn owl
hugin munin
finite flesh
new sinew
elemental fire
elemental water
elemental air
ice field
earth rise