Arts & Craft Show Extravaganza

Interview with Artisan Blacksmith David Robertson

December 20th, 2009, No Comments

Interview with artisan blacksmith David Robertson
www.artistblacksmith.com
Shasta:  Tell us a little bit about yourself i.e. how old you are? Where you grew up etc.
David:  I grew up just outside of Hamilton Ontario Canada and I turned 44 this year.  Once you get into your 40’s time seems to pass pretty fast.
Shasta:  How long have you [...]

Introduction to Artisan Blacksmith David Robertson

December 19th, 2009, 1 Comment

David is a 44 year old blacksmith who grew up just outside Hamilton Ontario Canada.  He has always been an artist who developed his talent for blacksmithing in college, and sold his work at shows to pay for school.  He has had his own blacksmith business 20 plus years.
David wrote the book How to Be [...]

Interview with James Dillehay

November 13th, 2009, No Comments

James: I grew up in Houston Texas, sometimes working in my father’s retail clothing business in my early teens. In my twenties, my dad expanded to 4 stores and incorporated. I was expected to take over the business and it seemed like the logical choice. Meanwhile, I had a side interest — studying human potential – as in personal growth through consciousness raising practices.

I had come across a Sufi master from Baghdad who traveled around the world teaching ancient techniques for increasing one’s perceptions and intelligence. In a workshop with this man, who seemed straight out of the Arabian Nights, he told me I should quit my job – that it was holding me back from the work I would be doing later on.

Needless to say, this created quite a lot of stress. On the one hand, my father’s business was a golden opportunity. And on the other hand, I could spend some unknown amount of time walking a path that stretched back into antiquity with no clear promise of anything my Western mind could grasp. But it was the call of adventure into the unknown that finally won out.