forging-fool

George, you don't have to talk xxxx to make it as an artist, you just have to beat them at their own game. I always wait for one to start talking art babble then ask them what some of the words their using mean. Most of them don't know and then people seem to listen to what I have to say about my own work. When it comes to what we call ourselves I always feel this way. If you asked any CEO of any multinational company whether they would like several thousand years of history attached to their products they would most likely sell their grannies to get it. So why are we trying to push is away? We need to educate the public as to what a blacksmith realy is. Little by little we can do it but it takes a combined effort. I’ve had some success in my own area by just pulling people up on their preconceived ideas as to what a blacksmith is. I have noticed that most of my contemporaries just go quite or hide behind the label Artist Blacksmith, which confuses the public. As far as I’m concerned I’m a blacksmith first and foremost and also a sculptor. It simple and the public seem to respect and understand it.

That's the trick John, getting young people involved, I have found talking to young smiths that quite a few of them got into forging through being into renaissance festivals. Through my dealings for different groups I have come up against all of the negative attitudes you have mentioned. I have come to realise it is mostly due to the fact that not enough women have come into the forge. I don’t know about over there but most of the administration of the art and craft world here is carried out by women and they don’t like investing in areas that are male dominated. So I feel it is long overdue that we change.

Hi John, I've always considered myself a blacksmith first and a sculptor second. Over the last five years I’ve grown to feel that Artist Blacksmith is counterproductive to us as the public are confused by the term. I would say my customers are attracted by a combination of all the things you mentioned. I was thinking that colleges would most likely be interested in metalworking. Different colleges may differ in their needs and approaches. (I’m not saying I have all the answers here. I’m putting ideas out so we can debate and maybe improve on our craft) Silversmithing is already reasonably well catered for as far as I’m aware. I have not given it much thought. I know it’s not a recognized occupation in Ireland as far FAS the national occupational training body here. Weather NOS will help your guess is as good as mine. Whether art has a lower skill level really depends on the person doing it and what they want to put into it. It doesn’t have to mean a poor skill level. Please keep me posted about your event.

This morning I received in my inbox, information of yet another degree in craft. This time at Crawford College of Art & Design, in Co. Cork, Ireland. It will consist of ceramics, glass and textiles. Once again blacksmiths are not at the table. I have long thought the blacksmith industry needs to focus some attention on getting our craft into the major art colleges. On the whole, when voicing this idea I’ve been met with mockery, derision, anger, outrage and, thankfully support, at such an idea. Why are we so resistant to new ideas? Surly having small forging departments open for three or four days a month (like some other departments already) in art colleges would be good for blacksmithing. It would provide extra and much needed income for those smiths who feel happy to teach. It would also help to promote our craft in areas some have felt to be blocked off to us. It would allow students to dip their toes in the water and, if they like it, dive in. I’m sure a great many of these students would then go on to fulltime studies in forge work at collages like Hereford in the UK. It would also help to promote our craft to future administrators of the art world. A large amount of art students don’t go on to become practising artists, they become gallery administrators, curators and civil servants. In short, they become the commissioners of future art. Thus, if they aren’t exposed to the forge they are less likely to commission forge work. This is borne out by the fact that very few of us are commissioned by these sorts of institutions. It feels as if we, as an industry, decided at some point to stop moving forward. To stop building on the monumental efforts of those who helped halt the decline of our craft in the Sixties and Seventies. Smiths I have a great deal of admiration for, without whom I know I would not be doing what I love today. These artists, most of whom are widely known by those of us working in the forge, put in place what became a great endeavour to help blacksmithing survive and move on. Other crafts did the same, but at some point our paths differed quite significantly. We became content with, on the whole, being a craft. We set up our colleges in rural areas, held the majority of our events in out of the way places and mostly, though not exclusively, shunned the art world, its colleges and galleries. Crafts such as ceramics at first did the same, establishing colleges in rural areas and so on. But somewhere along the line they began to court the art world, getting small ceramic departments set up in more prominent art colleges and holding events in major metropolitan areas, with exhibitions in contemporary art galleries. In short, ceramicists pushed their way to the front and became a mainstream art form as well as a traditional craft. You don’t need to take my word for this, all of us already know of ceramics events being pushed by various groups, colleges, galleries and associations. All we have to do is look around us. How many times have you been introduced to someone as a blacksmith and been met with one of the three following remarks: “You must be one of the last blacksmiths in the country”. “Do you shoe horses?” “I thought blacksmiths died out in the Victorian era”. Ask those same people if they know of ceramics. Not only is it odds-on they know of it, they most likely collect it and know several potters. The other effects on crafts/art forms like ceramics and glass is that, like us, fifty years ago they were a predominately male dominated industry whereas now they are relatively aligned with national averages in terms of gender employment while our industry has only about 10% of its number being female. This puts us at a huge disadvantage. Any industry that is either mostly male or mostly female from one class or group is in danger of stagnation, becoming irrelevant to whole swaths of society. If we are to move forward we have to recognise that blacksmithing has a poor record in attracting women into the craft and we must look at why women don’t find their way to holding a hammer. This all leads to one truth in my opinion. We are not diverse enough! We have very few avenues into our craft which has left us isolated among other art forms. We are bogged down in dogmas about how blacksmiths should orientate their business, where and to whom it should be taught and where it should be exhibited and demonstrated. I’m not saying everyone should be forced to operate in the art world or go to art collage. I, myself, left school with no qualifications and come from a metalwork background, both my father and brother being welder fabricators on the docks of Portsmouth in the UK. What I mean is, disregarding those with successful careers in the art world is counterproductive to our craft. Refusing to acknowledge that other crafts have gained huge advantages by being present in art colleges undermines our craft. Carrying on only promoting our craft in the same way as has been done over the past forty years, with the same results, is not progressing our craft. Of course, the forge-ins we have are great fun, they are fantastic ways of sharing skills and fostering friendship. All of this is very desirable and something of an edge we have as a craft. But … yes sorry, I have to insert a ‘but’, it does not effectively promote forge work to the other 99.999.999% of the world. Not least because of the way we generally do it as a whole at the moment. The most recurring complaint I hear from other smiths is the public’s lack of awareness of our craft. It would appear to stand to reason that our combined efforts so far have not been effective. So, logic would dictate that we look to promote our craft in different ways, wouldn’t it? Shouldn’t we look at how other crafts and art forms have achieved greater results? Perhaps combined with what we already do so well, it would push blacksmithing into the limelight, and as a result smiths would find it financially much more comfortable? I don’t know how to end this other than stating that I’m not attacking anyone for what they do. I’m not trying to rubbish people’s efforts over the past fifty years or say it was worthless. As I’ve already said I have a great deal of respect for what these smiths and their families and friends have done and sacrificed for the craft. I simply feel we have problems and we need to look afresh at how to solve them. Otherwise I fear the efforts of the past could be for nothing.

Thanks everyone I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm also looking to make a set of bellows, but the blueprint pages are no longer up. Any ideas on on where to get plans? Mod Note: the BPs are located here: http://www.iforgeiro...l/_/blueprints/

Thanks for all your comments. It was a challenge but it was made easer by the fact that all three of them were very interested in forge work and they were all hard workers. That being said I was very tiered at the end of it all.

Ed's Chair won the series jointly with the piece from the ceramics show. They had two weeks in the forge with me, as I said I could not get them up to speed in just one week.

Last chance to catch the blacksmithing episode of Craft Master over the next three days.http://www.rte.ie/pl...yer/#!v=1115378 This was filmed in my forge in Co. Sligo, Ireland.

Hope we see you there!

Firstly thank you very much, I'm glad you like them. Their made of mild steel and burnished with a twisted wire brush on a mini grinder and wiped down with boiled linseed oil. Arches are 30mm by 6mm flat bar and uprights are all 16mm square bar. It was all hand worked on the anvil, and I made the texture using the sharpened cross pien of a hammer. I'll take a photo of the hammer today encase anyone is interested.

WOW! that's all I can say.

These are candle sticks I made for my sister-in-laws wedding last week. A labour of love I really enjoyed making.

This is a resent gate restoration, well in fact it was a complete recreation as only the back stay was in good enough condition and the customers budget would not stretch to wrought iron.

Imprinted upon the musical waves is a an extract of a W. B. Yeats poem, Doarmuid & Grania. "I shall send messengers who will gather the harpers that his funeral song will be well sung. It may be that he will come with Aonghus out of the heart of some hill and stand invisible among us and know that he is not forgotten" Bryce, Yes that is my power hammer Pawel is using, we where finishing off the sculpture IABA did for Cootehall. Nice basket good to see my work is having and impact with other smiths. Where are you based? If you are ever in Sligo you would be more than welcome in my forge. Did you see see Pawel's chess board he made for the National Craft Competition this year? It real is a master piece.

Here are a few photos of a sculpture I’ve just finished for Ballymote public library here in Co. Sligo. It is in intituled Harp of the Tuatha de Dannan and I took my inspiration for this commission from the stories of the great harp of the Tuatha de Dannan, and how it could quieten the fiercest worrier’s hart. I wanted not only to portray the harp, but also the music that plays such an important role in the mythology of the area. Also being only a few miles down the road from Ballymote I’m conscience of the areas strong agricultural background along with the huge part the Blacksmith has played in both agriculture and mythology in the area. Too this effect I have used the construction methods of the flat bar gate in the designing of this sculpture. The flat bar gate is synonymous with Irish rural life, none more so than in the Northwest and it is one of Ireland’s great art forms. Every Blacksmith had their own style of gate and in remote areas were mostly the smith’s only form of artistic expression in amongst the daily demands of tool making and the forging of house hold items along with weapons. This way of construction affords for the combination of strength and lightness, making it ideal for this commission as wait is an issue. The harp’s frame will be made up of two pieces of flat bar steel, hot forge, drawn out and sculpted with holes both hot punch and hot cut and the two pieces riveted together. The strings will be forged from filler rods and along the bottom edge will be riveted to the frame using, forged steel wild rose flower washers and 925 Sterling silver rivets.

Great work Sam, really enjoyed seeing it, nicely balanced piece.

The gate is my entry for a national craft competition they have here in Ireland every year. This year they have added a traditional ironwork category and I wanted to do something that was obviously hand forged without any modern fabrication involved but with a bit of a contemporary feel. Never used wraps before as I always think they are put there to hide something, but this time I wanted to portray the difference the surface of the river and what lies beneath.

This is a new gate I've just finished. It is called Rivergate and was inspired by the rivers that run close to the forge.

When you are so hungry that you can no longer carry a conversation that requires more than a yes or no from you. When the large slack-tub it hot enough to cook a leg of ham.

There is new work up on the site today from Stephen Quinn Co. Galway and Michael Calnan & Gunvor Anhøj in Co. Wicklow.

Thanks Frosty. We will be updating the site regularly so please do keep checking it out.

Here is the new Irish Artist Blacksmith Association website: This will give you a good view into the work and scope of blacksmithing in Ireland today. We would welcome your comments and suggestions.

Things are moving on a bit with the school and blacksmithing in general here. We have managed to get our situation highlighted in a national news paper, which has led to the leader of the main opposition political party wanting to get involved . Also it has led to the Crafts Council agreeing to meet with us. Unbelievably blacksmithing is no recognised as a craft in it's own right over here. We have got our first concession with the Crafts Council of Ireland, now for the first time ever you can search directly for a blacksmith on their site. Also a feasibility study for the school is being carried out at the moment which should help things.

This is a little background info for anyone intrested in helping out. CE