Fly Design
The following is a short interview between designer and co-founder of Best Made Company Peter Buchanan-Smith and Shawn Davis, master fly tier and maker of The Gray Ghost. In their interview they discuss the art of making a fly, selling a fly, using flies to catch fish, and using a camera to catch flies.
Peter Buchanan-Smith: Among other things I design axes, and you design something that’s infinitely smaller. I can almost imagine working with such detail, but not at such scale, with feathers and gold to boot! What’s it like?
Shawn Davis: The artistry and fundamentals of good craftsmanship aren’t so different from making quality axes, really, but goldsmithing and flytying do require attention to detail on a different scale. Some jewelers work under magnification, but I prefer to approach my work by feel, rarely even using a loupe when I’m working. When you work with gold enough, you begin to know instinctively when you’re using the right burr or buff to get exactly the shape and finish in the piece you’re looking for. When making a hook, I may work loosely from a template, but I don’t adhere strictly to it. If I’m not satisfied with the way the piece looks, I keep working it; when it looks beautiful, I stop working it. It may sound strange, but to some degree I let the gold do what it wants to do. I work with it, almost collaboratively. Each piece of gold is different and so each hook comes out unique. The same is true when working with feathers.
One of the greatest challenges for me is overcoming restraints placed on each art by the other. The precious metals pose problems for me that the flytier never has to consider, and the flytying materials present problems for me that the goldsmith never has to consider. Polishing wheels traveling at thousands of RPMs, for example, don’t interact well with delicate silks and feathers. Much of what I do is therefore very, very difficult, and I’ve had to develop many of my own techniques to meet the unique challenges my work poses. It took me five years to tie my first jewelry-quality fly.
PBS: People will spend upwards of four figures for your flies. What draws someone to spend that type of money?
SD: While it may be hard for most people to appreciate the particulars in my craftsmanship, I hope the artistry of my pieces is something anyone can appreciate. An artistic salmon fly couples beauty with danger, a poisoned apple to a fish. I try to stretch that tension to the extreme in a vision elegantly simple. It is my hope that, even if people have no idea /how/ I do what I do, one look at my flies will convince them of /why/ I do what I do.
PBS: Your flies have tremendous character. They are almost like actual living creatures. Do you improvise this as you make each fly, or have you a “character sketch” in mind before you start?
SD: Many artistic tiers crank out hundreds of different patterns per year, often in my eyes merely slight variations of each other. I try to make each fly a reinvention of the art, completely different from the last. That takes time. Often a pattern will gestate in my mind for years. Occasionally I’ll jot down some notes when I think of a unique technique, just so I don’t forget it, without any idea if or how it will eventually make it into a finished pattern. My /Fire/ fly is a great example of my creative process, which is one of constant revision. I wanted to make a fly that looked like it was on fire, but all I had was a color scheme. After tying several unsuccessful patterns based on somewhat traditional methods, I finally developed something quite new and yet refreshingly simple, forming pheasant crests and tinsel into flames that enveloped the body of the fly in strikingly flame-like fashion. One day, when I have time (that which is so elusive), I will compose a photo essay of my creative process for a piece from start to finish.
PBS: This might be a stupid question but most flies are designed to catch fish. Are yours?
Artistic salmon flies arose from early tiers’ attempts to mimic the beautiful colors in baitfish. While the art has drifted significantly from those roots, and a few of the most daring tiers have even suggested that artistic flies need no longer be functional as fishing implements, I think functionality is essential to the character of a fly. If it doesn’t catch fish, then what does it do? Now, my finished flies are permanently mounted in domes and on necklace chains and will never touch water, but I’m confident that they would meet that challenge were they put to it.
PBS: When you fish, what type of fly do you use?
Ironically, I typically use extremely simple patterns when I fish. My favorite flies are those of my own invention, and I have a few fishing patterns that have been more successful for me than the old standbys in their class. While they are infinitely simpler than my artistic creations, I’m every bit as proud of them as I am of my presentation flies. I apply my creativity every bit as tenaciously to tying practical flies as I do to tying artistics.
PBS: Your wife, who is also a nature photographer, takes all the photographs of your work. How important is the role of photography in what you do?
We realized early on that my work would only be appreciated by the public to the degree to which the photography could capture its essence. Brenda and I spent countless hours learning how to photograph my flies well, developing backgrounds and lighting schemes that accentuated the flies’ colors and details against a jet-black background. It was tricky. The first set of final images looked great to our eyes, but it wasn’t until I met several hundred people at shows who complimented her photography more than my tying that I realized just how powerfully her photographs affected people. In some ways, her images bring people closer to my pieces than they could approach the flies themselves.
From a relational standpoint, Brenda’s involvement in my work has been refreshing for both of us. Not a flyfisher herself, her investment in my tying has given her an appreciation for what she might otherwise view as her insane husband’s misguided hobby. As it is, she enjoys the work and the unique challenges it presents.
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