Interview with DaVinci by iCE Staff
Interview with DaVinci by iCE Staff
Interview with DaVinci by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 12/2002
Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions www.acid.org
HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview13
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iCE: Tell us a bit about yourself. First name, age, hobbies, etc.
DaVinci: My name is Sam, and Im 50 years old. I have quite a few hobbies
and interests, including graphics of course, metal working and
engraving, ham radio, music, photography, computers, and more. I
played music professionally for nine years, and play bass and
guitar, but my main axe is 5-string bluegrass banjo. I also teach
banjo.
iCE: How long have you been a member of iCE?
DaVinci: I think I joined in 1998. That sounds about right.
iCE: Where are you from? Have you lived anywhere else?
DaVinci: I live in rural Louisiana and have lived in Michigan, Maryland,
Florida, and Georgia.
iCE: What do you do for a living?
DaVinci: Im a hand engraver by profession. Ive been engraving longer
than my iCE members have been alive I also teach 6 one-week
engraving classes a year in Kansas. When Im not engraving here
in my own studio or teaching classes, Im probably at a jewelry
show demonstrating engraving and diamond setting techniques. Ive
worked in Switzerland, China, Italy, Hong Kong, and in 2003 Ill
be in Japan and Thailand as well as shows here in the USA.
iCE: We understand youve had some success at that. Youve had some of
your works on the cover of magazines?
DaVinci: In Feb. 1984 a set of guns I engraved were on the cover of
American Rifleman magazine. My works been in books and magazines
for many years. Im very fortunate to have studied under two of
the worlds best hand engravers.
iCE: You played music professionally for 9 years? Can you tell us about
that?
DaVinci: My band was together for 9 years, and we started out playing
hardcore traditional bluegrass music. Back in 1973 when we
started, bluegrass was the rage and we had all the work we could
take. Then it slowly faded from popularity and we changed gears
and did country, progressive country, and even some cajun/zydeco
music. I played banjo the first 4 years and electric bass the
last 5 years we were together. Since we played in very popular
clubs in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to jam with some
interesting people. A couple of names I can drop are John
Belushi, who sang with us every night for a week around 1975, and
Peter Townsend of The Who. There are others, but those two are
memorable.
I got very serious with my engraving hobby and when the band
parted ways in 1982, I began working full time as a hand engraver.
I was discovered you might say, by a wealthy gun collector in
New Orleans who liked my work and thought I had potential. He
employed me for 7 years to engrave his personal gun collection.
He sent me to Italy to study under the best engraver there, and I
also studied under another engraver here in the USA who was
considered one of the best in the world. My employer was a patron
to the arts. He never demanded anything but my very best work,
and I was never under any time constraints to complete jobs. I
had the security of a weekly paycheck and complete artistic and
creative freedom to develop my skills. In other words, I hit the
engravers lottery. Ive been extremely fortunate, and I never
take that for granted.
iCE: Youve done engraving work for kings and princes as well, right?
DaVinci: No kings or princes. I did a job for the president of Turkey, and
Ive done work thats gone to famous people. I cater to advanced
collectors who appreciate engraving as an art, and not just
something that takes up space.
iCE: Can you tell us anything about doing engraving? How do you generally
plan it out, and what materials are used? How long does it take to do
the job, and what makes one job more laborious than another?
DaVinci: In a nutshell, engraving is simply using a small chisel called a
graver. Traditionally, the graver is either pushed by hand or
driven with small hammer called a chasing hammer. I engraved with
hammer chisel for many years, but now I use a pneumatic
handpiece the propels the tool like a tiny jackhammer. Its still
guided freehand and the graver itself is still the same. The
length of time can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few months.
Like graphics, it depends on the complexity of the design. Some
of my higher-end gun jobs have taken a year to complete, while
smaller jobs on custom knives may take a few weeks. Scroll
designs go a bit faster than portraits and scenes, and inlaid gold
slows down the process quite a lot.
I also engrave jewelry. Everything from simple lettering tasks to
complex designs done in deep, sculpted relief. However, Im best
known for the high-end type of work, and thats the bulk of my
business.
iCE: What training did you have before you started engraving? You said you
learned from two of the worlds best hand engravers - how did you get
there, since I assume thats what set you up for the success you have
found?
DaVinci: I was self-taught prior to my engraving training. Ive not had
any art training of any kind. What little I do know was learned
on-the-fly. Graphics are a great creative release for me,
especially since I can work in color. That might sound odd, but
as an engraver, color is not an option. We simply incise designs
into metal. The only exception would be the addition of inlaid
gold or silver.
My first graphics were done with Windows Paint back when
Windows 3.0 came out. From there I used a program called Tempra
something. Cant remember the name, but it was an incredible
256 colors! I fooled with that a bit, then discovered Autodesk
3D Studio for DOS. I did 3D animations for software companies...
mostly spinning logos for the old DOS program spash screens. In
those days that was considered some pretty spectacular stuff. Now
days you can find shareware or freeware that does the same thing
effortlessly.
I tend to approach graphics with the same precision as my
engraving. I like sharp, crisp detail. This is just my style and
what I like best. I dont always achieve my goal, but I have fun
trying.
iCE: If you could be doing anything right now professionally, other than
engraving, what would you do?
DaVinci: Thats a difficult question. I love my work as much as I love my
hobbies. I could be content being a logo designer or something.
It would be great to paint the fun stuff that you see on my
website and get paid for it. I just paint what pleases me and was
never concerned whether anyone else liked it or not. Apparently
some dont because I have a collection of email from people
telling me how much I suck, and that Im not an artist, and blah
blah. I just laugh it off and am amused by it. My work gets
ripped off frequently, too. People are always emailing me telling
me someones ripped my artwork and modified it for use on their
website. I get an average of 2 or 3 reports per month. Some have
even removed my signature and one guy won contests with my work.
I think some of the things I do lend themselves well to ripoffs,
since I frequently do detailed frameworks which are then gutted
and changed to suit the person taking them. Such is life I guess.