Learn | Issue No.09

Dedicated to the Bench Artist Learn ISSUE No.09

This issue features extraordinary work from all of our Grand Master instructors. The work of these talented individuals is a great source of inspiration and provides a brief glimpse into the techniques that they share during a Grand Masters Course. ON THE COVER:

The GRS Grand Masters Program® is returning in 2023! Yes, there’s a big X on the cover, and yes, this is actually the 9th issue of Learn magazine (If Apple can do it with the iPhone, why not us?). We’re not numbering our issues out of order, but we are celebrating that the 2023 Grand Masters will be the 10th edition of the program! In this issue, we’re taking some time to reminisce about past Grand Masters events. Looking back, it’s easy to see how students have invested in their skills with these world-class courses. We’ve had a lot of fun times over the years with both students and instructors, much more than these few pages can capture. We also spent a little time talking with our 2023 Grand Master Instructors, Damien Connolly and Jason Marchiafava, and have some great insights to share from them! All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Glendo LLC. Although the highest care has been taken to make the information contained in “Learn” as accurate as possible, neither Glendo LLC nor the authors can accept responsibility for damage of any nature resulting from the use of the Dedicated to the Bench Artist Learn ISSUE No.09

In order, from top left to bottom right.

Alain Lovenberg GMP Instructor 2008, 2012, 2017

Creative Art GMP Instructor 2006, 2010

Ken Hunt GMP Instructor 2007

Martin Strolz GMP Instructor 2009

Winston Churchill GMP Instructor 2005, 2007

Damien Connolly GMP Instructor 2023

Philippe Griffnée GMP Instructor 2006, 2008

Alexandre Sidorov GMP Instructor 2009, 2012, 2017

Mike Dubber GMP Instructor 2019

Sam Alfano GMP Instructor 2019

Ron Smith GMP Instructor 2005

information within. ©Glendo LLC 2023

Jason Marchiafava GMP Instructor 2023

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Thank you to Jason Marchiafava and Damien Connolly for taking time to discuss their expectations for this year’s Grand Masters Program®. Head over to pages 26 and 28 to read what they had to say and to learn more about their backgrounds in the arts! CONTRIBUTORS Learn magazine wouldn’t be possible without our awesome contributors! If you have an idea for an article, tips or techniques you’d like to share, or just want to send us some photos of your latest work, please email GRS at creative@glendo.com.

@GRSTOOLS TO SHARE IDEAS & PHOTOS OF YOUR WORK 28 04

Looking Back,

Damien Connolly 30 HOW TO APPLY FOR THE 2023 GRAND MASTERS PROGRAM® @GRSTOOLS Jason Marchiafava 26 Looking Forward A Grand Masters Program® Retrospective

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Looking Back,

Looking Forward A Grand Masters Program® Retrospective

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With all the excitement for this year’s Grand Master’s Program, we thought it would be a great time to look back at the previous events. The first-ever Grand Masters Program® was held in 2005 at the GRS Training Center. Founded on the belief that both art and artist benefit from the exchange of ideas and techniques, it brought some of the most renowned engravers in the world together with students for two comprehensive courses of study. The event also offered a weekend full of conversation, impromptu demonstrations, and an open showing of work and portfolios. In its early years, the Grand Masters Program® was two separate 5-day courses rather than the 10-day courses we see today. There have been many other changes throughout the years-- the equipment and facility have changed with time, and we’ve expanded the course offerings to include stone setting. No other gathering of this caliber exists for sharing and learning. Even though many things have changed, one thing has stayed the same; the program was--and is--dedicated to the art.

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2005

In 2005, The first Grand Masters Program® brought Ron Smith and Winston Churchill to instruct at the GRS Training Center. Ron instructed students during the first week, guiding them through multi-color inlays and advanced shading methods. Students learned which color of metals to use for the best composition, preparation of cavities and channels for inlay, finish their work, and solve issues that might arise during the process. During the second week, Winston led students through techniques to push their work further, including relief engraving, sculpting, bulino, flush and raised gold inlay, work photography, and more. Both instructors worked with traditional chasing hammers and hand gravers, but the techniques they shared were independent of the engraving method.

2005 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2006

In 2006, Philippe Grifnée and Giacomo Fausti, Giovanni Steduto, and Ugo Talenti of the renowned firm Creative Art traveled to the GRS Training Center to teach. These world-class artists hailed from Liége, Belgium, and Val Trompia, Italy, and brought with them skills born from the rich traditions of the engraving arts in their home countries. During the first course, Philippe guided students through the execution of a project he designed to help each engraver use his techniques, including toolmaking, sculpting, gold work, finishing, and special Belgium techniques. For the second course, Creative Art taught students how to engrave photorealistic fine art images, including proper anatomy of animals, scene and landscape development, perspective, foliage, skies, water, and much more.

2006 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2007

Winston Churchill returned, joined by Ken Hunt for the third Grand Masters Program® in 2007.

Winston Churchill believed the most important part of the engraving arts is the artwork itself. The bulk of his class focused on drawing and its subsequent study and critique. He taught students to create realistic animal and bird scenes on paper and make them come to life in steel. Ken Hunt instructed students in fine English scrollwork, emphasizing the fundamentals of design and function. He also shared his methods for gold inlay and damascene, including techniques for using precious metals economically without detriment to quality.

2007 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2008

Acclaimed Belgian Master Engravers Philippe Grifnée and Alain Lovenberg each taught a week for the 2008 Grand Masters Program®. During his course, Philippe Grifnée shared the style that made his work sought-after by many prestigious European gunmakers and collectors worldwide. Students learned his extraordinary technique by practicing on a specially designed project. Alain Lovenberg’s course focused on the traditional method of shading scenes, landscapes, and the human figure. This classical technique creates shading with a series of finely engraved lines. He also shared his insights into creating a wide variety of effects and subtle textures using this graver-centric technique.

2008 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2009

Martin Strolz of Steyr, Austria became the ninth Grand Master Engraver to share his knowledge during the program. Recognized worldwide for his unique Austrian style of engraving, Mr. Strolz brought a new dimension to the range of prior course offerings. Educator and Master engraver, he led participants on a journey of integrating artful layouts and designs on metal. New this year was the exciting addition of a Grand Masters stone setting program taught by Alexandre Sidorov of Antwerp, Belgium. Mr. Sidorov’s innovative stone-setting techniques are considered nothing less than world-class and for the first time, he taught in the United States. These courses were extraordinary opportunities for engravers and jewelers to learn to enhance and embellish metal with the brilliance of set stones.

2009 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2010

In 2010, the Grand Masters courses made the shift from 5 days to 10 days in length. Creative Art returned to instruct students in fantasy engraving, a special style for which they are famous worldwide. This style allows the engraver to blend an extraordinary range of themes and subjects together in an interesting and flowing design. It can simultaneously combine traditional engraving art elements with contemporary ones producing striking results that hold the eye and attention like no other engraving technique. The Creative Art team taught each attendee an advanced understanding of light, perspective, artistic balance, and visual rhythm. The course included a balance of graphic art design and refined execution techniques in metal with personal guidance from start to finish. It was intended to help engravers break through their existing art barriers and boost their level of work.

2010 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2012

After a one-year break in the program, Alain Lovenberg and Alexandre Sidorov both returned to teach the Grand Masters Program®. Alexandre Sidorov shared his innovative techniques for multiple stone pavé and unique single-stone settings. Because many of his techniques depend on special tools, he taught students how to make them and where to get them. In addition, students were given the opportunity to choose a part of the curriculum. Alain Lovenberg guided students through a project with full gold inlaid background and low-relief engraving. Students learned how to make tools, create cuts, prepare metal, and execute these highly specialized methods. He showed step-by-step how to use the Belgian technique of relevoir to prepare the dovetail with a chasing tool.

2012 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2017

Five years later, Alexandre Sidorov and Alain Lovenberg returned for an encore in 2017.

Alexandre Sidorov again shared his world-renown techniques and how to make the tools required for them. Students requested a tutorial in setting and inlaying mother-of-pearl, and he obliged, resulting in some truly unique practice projects. Alain Lovenberg led students through work on a firearms floor plate. The design featured low relief and a full gold inlaid background.

2017 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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2019

Sam Alfano and Michael Dubber were the 2019 Grand Master Instructors. Both instructors are FEGA Master Engravers and pillars in the American hand engraving industry. Mike taught a Master Level Colt Engraving course. He led students through a full coverage project on a Colt S.A.A. revolver including iron inlay, gold inlay, scrollwork, and sculpted engraving. Sam’s Comprehensive Master Level Engraving course included gold inlay, relief, sculpting, and intricate scrollwork that he is so famous for.

2019 GRAND MASTER INSTRUCTORS

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This year we’re looking forward to seeing the 10th edition of the GRS Grand Masters Program® in August. Jason Marchiafava and Damien Connelly will be leading the program this year and sharing their skills with students. Jason’s course will present challenges to all levels of students and expose each of them to techniques they have likely never seen before. The class project combines elements of stone setting, engraving, inlay, and fabrication on a medallion made from 410-series stainless steel that will serve as the canvas. The design includes an elegant sculpted scroll pattern accented by 24K gold inlay for the background, pavé diamonds with ajourè style accents, and decorative piercing to bring everything together. This will be a unique opportunity to take your bench skills to the next level! Damien’s course will be an intensive study of sculpted steel engraving and 24K gold inlay techniques. Students will learn the finer points of these difficult techniques and apply them to create a carbon steel and gold inlaid medallion. The design features a highly polished, slightly domed, heat or niter blued piece with deep contrasting gold borders and lines, and polished/gray arabesque design elements in progressive relief. Broad borders of flush inlaid 24K gold will appear to be wrapped and overlaid by deep sculpted steel arabesque leaves. This is sure to be another extraordinary opportunity for hand engravers and stone setters alike. We can’t wait to see how students use what they learn!

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Get to know Jason Marchiafava

Jason Marchiafava began his first apprenticeship in his family’s jewelry business at a very young age. There, he cultivated a strong foundation working in precious metals. Since childhood, he has had a passion for design, jewelry fabrication, hand engraving, and stone setting. He began hand engraving in 1999 and started engraving fine guns and knives full-time in 2002, with a focus on Italian engraving techniques. Jason began teaching in 2004 and consulting jewelry manufacturing factories for advanced training in 2005. Later he would go on to apply his expertise within the corporate segment of the jewelry industry as the Master Craftsman of Tiffany & Co. Following his time at Tiffany, he visited many of the world’s most exclusive high jewelry manufacturing facilities. Jason is a third-generation master craftsman with a deep understanding of old-world jewelry manufacturing processes. His lifelong passion for creating world-class jewelry and engraving work, along with a willingness to share through teaching, is a testament to his dedication to our industry. instagram.com/jasonfava/

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5 Questions for Jason Tell us about your favorite instructor or learning experience.

I have had so many characters as teachers during my development years, this is a difficult question to answer. I would have to say Hratch Nargizian as he was my first hand push engraving instructor and coached me in both hand skills and philosophical perspectives on art and craft. This still leaves its impression on me all of these years later. The second would have to be my travels to Italy and would be a collective as I have so many fond memories of the studios I visited when venturing there. What has inspired you to teach? As a young beginning engraver, my struggle was the beginning of my desire to pass on the information that I learned. Once I realized how little educational information was out there especially around technique application and skill development, I decided that it was an obligation for me to pass on the information to the next generations that my teachers had passed on to me. For their legacy mostly, they will live on through my hands and work, and hopefully my students will continue that transfer of knowledge allowing me to live on through their hands and work long after I am gone. How did you develop the project for your course? There were a number of factors I took in consideration when developing the project for this course. How to incorporate rare techniques that directly utilize hand engraving as a key component. Pierced and sculpted filigree was one of those techniques and how they combine with other techniques like precious metal inlay and Pavé setting. The use of stainless steel was a simple challenge that will give the students the confidence to work in any metal they choose once they complete the project, and the final ingredient was to bring something to the table that very few people know about, something old but yet new….

What do you want students to take away from your course? My desire is to give students a clear understanding of refined carving, setting, and piercing skills in hard metal, high quality criteria, and how to apply them to their own works. Many of these techniques are quite rare to see today in hand application, so to see artisans apply it to their work and add value to their art is always a top priority. The final piece would be inspiration. To inspire creatives to reach outside of their current “toolbox” of skills and build new designs incorporating what they learn with skills they already have. What are you most excited about as an instructor? When I see the techniques that I teach applied in artisan’s work it gives me a sense of community and contribution. Watching the development of a struggling beginner fight to achieve milestones and realize reward for their hard work. Each step, determination and achievement are the most exciting parts for me. Admittedly some of this has to do with legacy as I believe we are all personally “a work in progress” throughout what I view as our journey, and I love the idea of leaving behind pieces of myself to other artists to bring with them on their journey.

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Get to know

Damien

Connolly Damien Connolly was interested in art, design, and engineering from a young age but discovered a passion for making muzzle-loading rifles at age 21. Starting out, he cut every part from raw steel by hand, except for purchased barrel blanks. He consumed technical books, studied professional work in books, and on rare occasions, had the opportunity to study others’ work firsthand. Damien began his first engraved commission in 1979. Sole authorship of his projects allowed him to take control of all facets of design, manufacture, finishing, and embellishment. Client relationships exposed him to quality engraving from Italy and the US, and that inspiration drove him to ever more complex designs in his growing career. After 1999, Damien began to focus solely on fine embellished firearms. A changing clientele allowed him to take a more expansive approach to design and invest more time in each project. His work features a mastery of all aspects of design and execution, including high-relief sculpting, bulino, banknote styles, precious metal inlay, and low-relief foliate scrolls of many styles. He uses these skills to create work that uniquely integrates artistic and functional design elements. instagram.com/dfconnolly89/

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5 Questions for Damien Tell us about your favorite instructor or learning experience.

Bruce Dean, an industrial engraver in Sydney Australia was the first real engraver I met. To me at the time, his work was unfathomably crisp and perfect. His mirror image lettering on roll dies for ink branding cigarettes, or embossing dies to stamp the relief crests on the packets, was all on a level unmatched by the gun engravers I had seen, and he insisted I use a microscope if I was to do my best work. I never was able to adapt to his use of tools having no heel, but as with Winston Churchill nearly three decades later, the real benefit was simply talking, absorbing their ethos, and most important, studying their work. Actual advice on how to do it seldom came up, though with Bruce, he did heavily distinguish between amateur work, and the clean professional work that you can charge money for. Good engraving is practice, and lots of it. Doing it! What has inspired you to teach? I have over time given lesson to several beginner engravers, and at least one went on to do some good work. But the things that are really interesting to me are only useful to engravers who have come to grips with the bread and butter of engraving, such as smooth curves, straight lines, clean cuts, and a sense of what makes a design look its best. To give a good engraver another process or technique, and to impart my outlook, my goals, is extremely fulfilling. How did you develop the project for your course? I wanted to create a project that embodies the things that I do in my work, and that I do not see elsewhere. The hard part, is to design something that does just that, but is also within the scope of a two week course. I would like students to have the satisfaction of completing this medallion as an example of new skills learned. I anticipate that some will be much faster than others - and some may have to slow down, but I see this as two weeks of intensive work should result in the creation of a valuable and worthy piece of art.

What do you want students to take away from your course? Those who attend will learn new skills for sure, but I would also like to impart some of my attitude to my work. If students were to leave with new skills and knowledge, and with a new determination to not settle until all avenues of improving the work are exhausted, then I will feel satisfied. It is the way we approach our work, and the drive to achieve our vision that will determine the outcome of each piece. What are you most excited about as an instructor? I have a lot of anticipation of spending two weeks with a bunch of skilled engravers. We hardly ever meet another engraver, and so this will be a huge enjoyment for me. But the real thing for me is that I get to share some of what I have learned from a lifetime of effort. So much of it is common to other engravers of course, but I know I have things to share that will change not just the way people work, but the individuality, the character, and the quality of work they produce. That’s a real payoff.

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August 14th-25th GRS Training Center, Emporia KS

Apply to Grand Masters grs.com/grand-masters-program-23

Application Deadline: March 31st.

Application Requirements: 3 Photos of work examples with no signatures or marks indicating who you are. $1375 Deposit due upon submission Full course cost is $2750. In the event your application is accepted, the balance of $1375 is due. Confidentiality Statement: After the application deadline, all candidates’ photos will be reviewed and edited to remove any names or identifying marks. Candidates will be assigned a number known only to Glendo management. Photos will be sent to the course instructor who will select twelve (12) students based on the work shown in the photos. Three alternates will also be selected to cover possible cancellations. Applications are kept confidential to ensure selections are unbiased. Instructors do not have access to names until after the selection process. Acceptance Notification: Applicants will be notified of acceptance the week of April 17, 2023. Learn Issue No. 7 for tips on photographing your work.

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W ho Should Apply: INTERMEDIATE BENCH ARTISTS AND ABOVE You do not have to be a master to apply. Grand Masters classes are TAUGHT by masters in their field. They are looking to take passionate bench artists to the next level during the two-week program. Applicants should have a firm understanding of sharpening techniques, the basics of scroll design, and have some experience with gold inlay. Reasons to Apply:

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SELF-INVESTMENT

This is a one-time opportunity for personal and professional growth. If you have ambitions to improve, the Grand Masters Program® can take your passions to new heights. Instructors Damien Connolly and Jason Marchiafava have developed class projects that will be challenging and fulfilling. This is a unique chance to spend quality time at the bench learning from a true master in the field, alongside like-minded and motivated classmates.

PASSION FOR THE ART

If you marvel over inlay, dream about scroll, or obsess over the perfect setting, then this class is for you! Time will fly by when you spend 10 days learning and collaborating this August in Emporia, Kansas. So much can be accomplished and learned when each day is committed to getting better without the interruptions of daily life.

COMMUNITY

One of the most amazing parts of Grand Masters is being able to share the experience with other artists that are as passionate as you are. The idea is to not only learn from the instructors, but also through collaboration with your classmates. Everyone brings a unique background, skill level, and perspective to the class. With evening hours and weekend events you will get to know other students and staff on a personal level as well. It’s like summer camp for professional bench artists!

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TRAINING CENTER

GRS.COM 800-835-3519 M-F 8AM-5PM CST

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