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Training at The Blacksmith Forge

How it began

How did I come to choose blacksmithing as a career? If I look back, I can see paths that led me here, even before I was consciously aware of them. At art school I found great satisfaction in hammering sculptures out of plate and welding them together. The simplicity of the process appealed to me – being able to beat and mould metal into shapes, and be done with them.

However, I soon found that there were limits to my capabilities. The steel I was using was hard, and didn't showcase my artistic creativity in the same way that painting and drawing did. It was only a few years later that I found a way of working with metal that I was most comfortable with, almost without knowing I was even looking. I was helping to make locks by sharpening picks – and before I knew it, I was hooked.

Three years later, with a few tools and an anvil to my name, I set up a small workshop in Cape Town, intending only to learn more and hone my skills. But soon people were giving me work, and I was able to start making a living. Despite struggling with the problems of owning a small business I came to a realisation very quickly – that blacksmithing was something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life; that it would never fail to captivate me.

The physicality, the engineering, and the ability to work with hard materials was difficult to master, but exciting at the same time – rather like doing martial arts while playing the violin. At the end of the day I was tired, but the pile of work by my anvil made up for it.

That was just the beginning. It was only after a few years that I could start calling myself a blacksmith – after I decided not to use arc welding in my designs, but rely wholly on blacksmithing techniques instead. Making this decision gave me a framework to work within and challenges to overcome, forcing me to push the boundaries of design possibilities. Imposing these limitations on myself gave my work meaning – and it was in finding solutions to the problems I set, that I discovered my artistic purpose.

Now, 15 years of experience and hundreds of commissions later, I've come full circle – from working by myself, to owning a thriving blacksmith workshop with a full quota of employees, to working with only an assistant. Despite the benefits of having employees to do the work for me, only when I do the work myself can I perfect my skills and become a better blacksmith. In this way I can concentrate on the creativity of my work and forge ahead with what I love most – art.

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