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| The only carving I have from my Grandfather, István Majoros. © Pal Gooz 2011 |
He was the ideal companion for a child like me, who was living wild adventures in his head about exotic animals , treasure hunting and an unsatisfiable curiosity about how things worked. We both loved solitude and liked to share quiet hours, when we both - I believe - lived our own intense second life inside our heads.
One of our favorite past time was to go to a magical place called Lillafüred, near Miskolc. The woods and the lake there were inexhaustible sources of entertainment, constantly feeding my adventure hungry mind , filled with Pirates, Indians, fairies, hidden treasures and long forgotten ruins of never existed castles. ( There is a real one there, but that is not ruins, so does not count ).
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Lillafüred : Palace, Hámori lake, and the surrounding forest© copyright Civertan Grafikai StúdióCivertan |
Sometimes we just walked the narrow paths between the woods , but from time to time, we took the small train that took us on scenic route to place called Ómassa ( meaning Old Smelter ).
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| The train . (original: A LÁEV vonata Lillafüred állomáson by VT ) |
From there we would walk towards Újmassa ( New Smelter) to find the the ruins of the old blast furnace and forge that was built in 1813. ( Honestly , at that time I had no idea I would become a jeweler, melting metal in my own little furnace).
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| The Old Smelter at Újmassa (Az újmassai őskohó by Szalax ) |
We would often go there with the the purpose that I would make drawings of the place, and we were equipped accordingly with sketchbooks and pencils and erasers. I loved drawing the old smelter. I have no idea why I was so attracted to that ruin. It may be that I always liked abandoned buildings which I could inhabit with the products of my fantasy. Additionally , the function and use of that smelter fascinated me beyond imagination. I wanted to understand how those people extracted iron from stone. Of course at that time - early 70ies - there was little explanation about the place. So I listened to the explanations that my Grandfather provided. Neither he, nor I were very well schooled in the chemistry and technology of iron smelting, of course, and his lectures always left gaps in my understanding. Maybe this was another reason I returned to the place so willingly every time.
Some days I had no motivation to do sketches and I went on expeditions to discover the building and the surrounding " jungle". In the surrounding forest people still produced charcoal and lime in the old fashioned way.
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| Charcoal pile ( Public domain) (This photo was taken by someone else, somewhere else) |
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The Old Smelter at Újmassa© copyright Civertan Grafikai StúdióCivertan |
Those were the times of peace and freedom.
Please visit my friends' blogs, to read about their memories:
Andes Cruz: www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Kathleen Krucoff http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Laura Flavin: http://modernbirdjewelry.blogspot.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Stephanie Nocito Clark http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Shaun Young http://shaunyoung.ca/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Stephanie Nocito Clark http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Shaun Young http://shaunyoung.ca/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/
