The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold;
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls...

In a little over a week I'm off to graduate school. I'm excited and nervous, but one unfortunate consequence of this is that I've had to close down my forge. My tools are packed away, the shop is closed up, and I've even put away my chainmaille supplies. I won't be picking up the hammer again for at least a year.

This does not mean I'm done, though, by any means. Once I'm done with graduate school and have found a job and settled I'll be renting a U-Haul just for my forge and taking it to our new home. Then I can set up and start hammering again. I've got some great ideas for a permanent forge building, and it's impossible to stay away from the anvil once you've got the bug. I've got some big plans for when I can work again.

Thank you to everyone for the favorites, watches, comments and critiques. I'll still upload deviations from time to time, I'm not dropping off the face of the earth, but it'll more likely be some photography for a while. I get some good shots every now and then.

The smith also sitteth by the anvil,
And fighteth with the heat of the furnace,
And the noise of the hammer and the anvil is ever in his ears,
And his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh.
He setteth his mind to finish his work,
And waiteth to polish it perfectly.

Cheers,
Nick