proper manky

Went up to Flagstaff again today. This time with TLMW to meet Howie H. Earlier this spring we had gone to Tucson with KuMa and KuVa and visited some downtown arts and crafts place. In one of the small galleries there, we saw a funky fire screen which we liked quite a bit – even though it didn’t have the right shape for our fireplace.

We’ve been needing replacement screens for years but made do with what we have out of a lack of suitable, simple, and affordable alternatives. (Skipping here a long and sordid story about taking a blacksmithing class at a local community college in an overly confident attempt to take matters into my own hands. The resulting works of ineptitude can only charitably be considered as “abstract garden ornaments.” I did, however, end up with a usable, self-made fire place poker.) Anyway, while in Tucson, we never found out who made those fire screens. I wrote a couple of e-mails to the place to get more information but to no avail.

Had all but forgotten about this, when I chanced upon a similar piece in a gallery window while in Flagstaff a couple of weeks ago. This time there was a name attached. Enter Google and Howie’s web site. We spoke a few times and he agreed to make two custom pieces for us. Both openings of the fire place have somewhat irregular shapes, and foam board cutouts were therefore in order to give Howie a sense of shape and dimensions. Thus, we trekked up to Flagstaff today to hand them over. Should have the screens with whimsical figures loosely modeled after Southwestern petroglyphs in about a month.

Howie H. – Tuscon	Howie H. – Flagstaff	Fire Screen Foam Board