Sculptural

Nigel is an artist blacksmith working at Fransham Forge in Norfolk England.

Nigel’s enthusiasm and dedication to his craft is shown in the vast range of high quality metalwork which is undertaken at the forge. Nigel creates decorative and functional hand forged metalwork , including sculptures, architectural metalwork, ornate iron gates and traditional ironwork for historic buildings. Nigel and his team work regularly with English Heritage and the National Trust.

Andrew Findlay has been forging artisitic metalwork for 30 years.
During this time he has developed many interesting and innovative techniques and textures to apply to his work. He is happy to use both traditional and modern tools and methods to achieve the desired effect.
Andrew’s work and design style is influenced but the great Art Nouveau and Art Deco artists and designers such as Antoni Gaudi, Victor Horta and Edgar Brandt, particularly in the way that their distinctive and sometimes unconventional work was successfully integrated into large architectural projects.
Finish is all important, patinated zinc, reactive copper paint, bronze and copper patinas, rusting, electropolished and heat coloured stainless are used in preference to paints.
He works in steel, bronze and stainless steel and has completed many major commissions in the UK and worldwide including Dubai, New York, Monaco And Italy. He has demonstrated his craft internationally and has been an artist in residence at the prestigious Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Andrew works mainly to commission and is happy to receive enquiries from Architects, Landscapers and Private Clients.

SAW Forge is a traditional blacksmith operating out of ‘The Old Smithy’ in Mawnan Smith, Cornwall. We specialise in bespoke, traditional and contemporary metalwork, including interior furnishings, fireplaces, lighting, indoor/outdoor furniture, sculptures, forged tools, repairs and restorations.

We work with private clients and public bodies, taking on small and large scale commissions, using traditional hot and cold forging techniques dating back hundreds of years to create beautiful pieces of decorative and functional metalwork that will last generations. All our pieces are designed and hand crafted on site by our fully qualified blacksmith, Steven Wilson.

Lucille Scott is an artist blacksmith who uses modern and traditional techniques to make hand forged metal items inspired by nature and her love of dance and music. For Lucille the appeal of working with steel lies in the traditional role of blacksmiths, the permanence of their work and passing on this tradition to all around her.
With 25 years experience of teaching practical subjects Lucille opens her forge on a regular basis to students and those who just want a days experience as well as running short courses in local schools.
Lucille’s work is mainly aimed at at the domestic market, she exhibits in local galleries as well as working to commission.
Photographs kindly supplied by Retina Photography.

Originally trading as blacksmiths and wheelwrights, the forge was founded in 1893 in the United Kingdom by Henry Hungerford Barrett and is still owned and operated by the Barrett family. The heart of the business is now in historic Hosmer, East of Fernie in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, where a purpose built workshop has been established. Sandra’s husband David is a fifth generation blacksmith. They have two children and have all become Canadian Citizens.

Sandra attended the first one year women into technology metalcraft course at Swindon College and received a Blacksmithing National Diploma. Under the guidance of Paul Allen FWCB LWCB LCGI, Sandra was accepted as a New Entrants Training Scheme apprentice at the National School of Blacksmithing in Hereford, where she obtained a certificate of training by the Countryside Agency as well as a certificate of competence from the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. In 2003 Sandra Barrett became the first lady blacksmith in Britain to be awarded the Frank Day Perpetual Trophy by the Guild of Wrought Ironwork Craftsmen of Wessex. Over 10 years later Fernie Forge has opened a second location in Fernie BC, Canada, where Sandra’s forgework is currently exhibited and sold in the “Eye of the Needle” gallery, together with work by other blacksmiths and artisans.

ARTESIAN METAL FABRICATION FROM GEDDING MILL

Welcome to Gedding Mill, we are an artesian fabrication company with contemporary skills and a track record of excellence spanning more than three decades.

Not your average Metalworkers
Gedding Mill Limited operates from a newly constructed, purpose-built, 5000 Sq. Ft workshop in Suffolk. We create a wide variety of metalwork for interiors, industrial, retail and domestic customers using Steel, Stainless Steel, Copper, Brass and Aluminium. We work meticulously to exact specifications and ensure we deliver the goods on time and on budget.
We have an eye for detail, with the range of skills and knowledge in the team, we can design and produce solutions for commercial projects and private clients alike.It is usual for us to work with companies that often have a very short and mission critical lead time. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously. We maintain our promises and understand its fundamental importance.

How we work

Customer service and clear communication are fundamental to our success and this goes both ways. In order to ensure we deliver exactly what our customers want, we need to be 100% clear on the brief and specification. Once this is agreed and signed off by the customer, we get to work. Our quality control is rigorous as we won’t gamble our reputation on a less than perfect product.

We have grown steadily through repeat business and recommendations and over the years our customers have tested our metal (no pun intended) by giving us more complex and unusual projects. We embrace these projects with energy and enthusiasm as we love a challenge!

Coming from a background in archaeology, my name is Dan Goodwin and I’m a jack’o’all’trades blacksmith with a passion for this wonderful craft. I offer teaching and educational demonstrations, as well as designing and producing commissioned ironwork alongside creating my own designs for sale.

Graduating from the National School of Blacksmithing in 2016 with Triple Distinction, I played the role of Journeyman for two years and settled myself in the 18th century grounds of Catton Hall, South Derbyshire, in 2018. From here, I’ve had the pleasure to teach a colorful array of people and take on an ever increasing range of jobs.

I’m happiest when I’m travelling the country and bringing the craft out into the sunlight, telling and learning the stories and history that accompany the people I meet and the trade I practice. Though the village smithy may not play the same role it did in pre-industrial times, I still firmly believe the smith has a role to play in both supporting and working within the local community.

Always happy to discuss bespoke projects, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at FirehoundForge@outlook.com

Fantastic Factory Studio is sited in Ripoll, SPAIN. We also offer our products online and accept custom requests.
Our local classes (8 pax) are offered weekly in our workshop, we are just 1 hour away from Barcelona so we encourage you to join anytime to enjoy a plentiful experience if you plan a visit to Barcelona. It’s a one-day thing, no experience requested. You will forge a beautiful piece of art, medieval weaponry or Bushcraft.
Our tourist packs are offered in groups of 4-8 people, we teach you some basics on blacksmithing and you will be guided to forge a Knife or an Axe in 10 hours. You can take a look at our website and contact directly to me by email or phone or Whatsapp +34678730334 Henry

Hello. I’m Owen Phillips – Artist Blacksmith at Gate Foot Forge.

…and it’s all been something of an accident! A background in Industrial Design and 15 years doing graphics is a strange route into this profession, but here we are. From a childhood spent tinkering with things, a love of machining and metalwork at school and an Industrial Design degree furthering those skills and developing design and visualisation techniques, I was all set up for a career making stuff with my hands. Then I somehow fell into graphics and spent a decade and a half sitting on my arse staring at a screen.

It was only back in 2019 when the hobby – which was clearly a result of an itching desire to make stuff – began to get out of control and accidentally became my job!

How did I get here?

I have always made stuff with my hands. My childhood was spent taking things to bits, and making things out of the parts. Through school, the stuff I enjoyed most and ultimately succeeded at was the practical metalwork and woodwork under what they term as “Design and Technology” nowadays. I further developed these skills at University and then, for most of my adult life, space to tinker was always a limitation. That was until 2016 when I moved back into my childhood home in a little hamlet called Gate Foot. Finally I had a workshop space.

During one tinkering session, I ended up building a small forge in order to heat treat a blade for a knife project I was working on. On a whim, I shoved some metal in there to get it hot and bend it about and came out with my own hand-forged flint striker…. and a bit of a blacksmithing bug!

The little forge was replaced with a slightly bigger one and I began to bend more stuff about. I consumed books and YouTube videos and began to learn the traditional techniques that would latterly have been passed down, craftsmen to apprentice, for thousands of years.

Roll on Christmas 2019 and lots of my friends and family find themselves getting hand-forged trinkets as gifts, and the inevitable questions get asked; “are you selling these?”, “is this a new venture?”, etc. And I have to admit to myself I’m enjoying it a lot more than sitting and clicking at a screen – and the stuff isn’t coming out half bad. I resolve to try and spend a bit of time tinkering away and pushing it to see if it goes anywhere – while maintaining my freelance design job as regular income.

Then along came a little thing called COVID-19. My design work – for which my clients are mainly in the hospitality and events sectors, all but dries up. Strangely, while the world goes bananas, I have an opportunity to push the forge business ahead and see what happens…

…and it turned out that quite a lot of people wanted nice hand-forged things. The orders rolled in. Within a month I’m shipping products from my garage to the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and have an order book with 3-weeks’ wait. I’ve re-invested most of the profit at the point back into tools and equipment and so haven’t quite broken even – but I have been only working half a week whilst childcare for a 2-year old isn’t available due to the lockdown.

Three months later, lockdown is easing. Nursery is open. I can work nearly a full week… my order book is still full, I have a full workshop of tools, and I appear to have accidentally become a blacksmith…

Not many people can say they genuinely love what they do for a living. I consider myself fortunate that I can get up in the morning, light my fires and spend my days working on a craft as old as the hills which I still consider to be some kind of magic.

OUR HISTORY

With the dynamism and enthusiasm of the younger generation, our master iron-smith first visited London from Umbria in Italy on vacation, but decided to stay, and then to brought to his new home, the skills and traditions of his great-grandfather, and has now finally taken the family business literally into his own hands, and has created his own workshop here under the brand name of Big Ferro.