"I start with gas pipe, like what you would find in your house. It has a seam in it, which I need to be careful to protect, since it can split if I am too rough with it. When it still looks like pipe, I forge weld different figures onto it. This involves bringing all the pieces up to 2400-2600 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature the pieces will weld when they are hammered together. I have the pipe heating in my forge while I hold the, say, butterfly in tongs in the forge to come up to temperature. When the butterfly is hot, I pull it out and flux it. I use roach powder, which is boric acid and melts to form a glass like coating to keep the surfaces clean, facilitating the weld. I then balance to butterfly on the pipe in the forge until it reaches the welding temperature. I reach into the forge and lightly tap it with a rod to test to see if it will "stick". If it does, I pull out the pipe and hammer the butterfly onto the pipe. I repeat the heating and hammering step a couple times for each figure to insure that it is well attached.

Once I have all the figures welded onto the pipe I start forging it into the vase shape. I must continue to forge at the welding temperature to insure that all my welding does not come undone. At the bottom where it is tapered the most, the figures are actually forged into the pipe and disappear into it. It gives the appearance of the figures evolving out of the pipe as they go up the vase.

The top and bottom are flared and rippled with a cross pein hammer to give a floral appearance.

The top neck of the vase is sized to a test tube, which is included, so that fresh flowers can be used in the vase.

After aggressively wire brushing the vase to remove all the scale and excess flux I heat it to a red heat then rub it with a brass brush. The brass melts onto the vase bringing out the details and warming the color. I then coat it with a wax mixture to seal it and protect it from moisture."