I second joining up with the Illinois Valley Blacksmith Association (IVBA), they've been really helpful for me and you can get plenty of beginner's instruction at their various events. If you're up north near Wisconsin you can check out the Upper Midwest Blackmith Association (UMBA) as well. In my experience, any local guild will be a bunch of old-timers who love blacksmithing and want to pass on the love of this art to anyone who's interested. Next month if you can make it down to Pontiac, IL (it's only a 90 minute drive south of Chicago) there will be a huge regional blacksmithing conference for 3 days from July 17-19...and they will have beginner's classes on Friday and Saturday! Here's a link to the event: http://www.umrbc.org/Home.html There's also Fine Line Creative Arts Center up in St. Charles that does more formal blacksmith instruction, but you'll be paying more and you have to sign up months in advance before the classes fill up. I'm sure you can find more places like that about if you search these forums.