Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards! All apologies to Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Had a great time at the online discussion of standards in heritage ironwork hosted by the UK National Historic Ironwork Group . Two presenters, one representing working blacksmiths and one representing conservation groups. It was a good debate and lots of …
Category Archives: The Daily
2021 – 26
Time to make my mark? I have never given consideration to a makers mark. In part I think because until this year I have been hesitant to put my work in the public eye. I’ve always been a late bloomer 😉 Recently I caught on Black Bear Forge a project currently making its way round …
2021 – 19
Standards, Standards, Everywhere. This month there is a discussion about the adoption of standards in Blacksmithing being hosted by the National Heritage Ironwork Group in the UK. Sign up is here. A perennial question, standards. Always a polarizing discussion, and rarely resolved to everyones satisfaction. Generally I am not in favour of being told what …
2021 – 15
I have a lot of Nurses in my family, and I have heard this sentiment many times. Not exclusive to Nurses I think, but they seem to have a particularly nasty reputation for this. Do Artists do the same? I have had contact with fewer blacksmiths than I would like, but have met a good …
2021 – 11
What’s in the box? Image lifted from Stuart Bull Antiques. I have found inspiration and sustenance during the last year by watching and contributing financial support to an amazing project . Tally Ho is a wooden boat restoration project underway in Washington state by an amazing crew led by fascinating man. In the last episode …
Advice is…overrated?
When I started school, the big score was to be the first one to get an Anvil. Every weekend people would follow up on leads, scour the Haliburton Highlands and beyond in search of the elusive big score. With no car and no money I had to sit on the sidelines on this one and …
2021 – 005
Night school magic My introduction to metal work came when my neighbour mentioned that he was a blacksmith and taught a night school course at the local high school. Didn’t need much more encouragement and I signed up post haste. A lot of water under the bridge since then. Steven Waters who was an amazingly …
2021 – 003
Oh, the glamour! Getting out of school I had visions of building large architectural pieces. Nothing grandiose, maybe some cathedral gates, a few public installations, just small stuff like that. What I quickly found out was that work was going to be trying to build custom solutions to small problems that couldn’t be easily fixed …
2021-002
I had been a hobbyist blacksmith for 10 years, taking an Art Metal Work course taught by my neighbour at the local High School and occasional weekend courses. In 2016 I attended the Fleming College – Haliburton School of Art and Design to complete their Artist Blacksmith program. The opportunity to attend this course came …
2021 -001
New Year, New Approach… I have been operating my studio for 3 years now and have learned much, suffered much and been to the brink of despair more often than I care to think about. Ah, the exciting and glamorous life of the artist blacksmith. Non, je ne regrette rien! Going into the new year, …