BlacksmitHER Radio

Toby Druce is making a mid-life career change to become a blacksmith. He is from the Toronto area in Ontario Canada and has been a social worker with the City of Toronto for the past 29 years. He has decided to change career paths and learn to become a blacksmith by attending the Fleming College Blacksmith Program over the next 15 weeks. Toby and l are doing a 4-part podcast series and this is the 2nd interview, Toby is now 5 weeks into his program.

What We Talked About

• With five weeks into his blacksmith program, he has obtained an A+ in Drawing and forged some tools; a hot chisel, hardy hot cut, punch, drift, and center punch.
• He just successfully completed his first forge weld a few days ago for a pair of tongs.
• There are 15 students in the class with an age range from 17 to 57 years old.
• Each student has to come up with a design of a final project and forge it by the end of the program, Toby's is going to be a table and table top and it will be his rendition of a compass rose.
• Along with the final project, each student will also have to show 8 different completed projects. Toby plans to make a set of repousse tools, a demo of repousse, kitchen utensils, a set of garden tools, and more chisels.
• Toby is already looking to reach out to a few Toronto blacksmith businesses for an apprenticeship.

Guest Links

• Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – Fleming College

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I recently attend my first SOFA Quad State Round-Up conference in Troy, Ohio and I wanted to give you guys a little summary of what went on last weekend, Sept. 22 - 25. I'll be interviewing 4 people who also attended; Rick Barter, Phoebe Anne Graham, Colin Fung and Jeff McCrady, an accumulation of different experiences.

Guest appearances on this episode:

• Rick Barter from Kentucky
• Phoebe Anne Graham from Indiana
• Colin Fung from McHenry, Illinois
• Jeff McCrady from Parkersburg, West Virginia

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil, www.sofablacksmiths.org

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Bruce Beamish is an industrial-trained blacksmith in Australia, his passion for blacksmithing started when he was 15 in school. He took a metals class that included forging. After school he decided to continue learning the craft and work as an apprentice, he was offered a job with the Australian Navy as an industrial blacksmith.

What We Talked About

• Bruce tells us how his ABANA 2016 experience was as an attendee and an Anyang Rep, demonstrating some the Anyang Hammers onsite.
• Being a faraway Australian member of ABANA for many years, he recalls the first five years of ABANA and how Dick Quinnell visited one the early conferences and was inspired to start the British Artist Blacksmith Association back in the UK.
• Australia has many state based blacksmith associations, though it doesn't have one large association that covers all of Australia, such as ABANA.
• Bruce's passion for blacksmithing started when he was 15 in school. He took a metals class that included forging metal. After school he decided to continue forging and work as an apprentice, he was offered a job with the Australian Navy as an industrial blacksmith.
• We talk about why Bruce approached me to do an Australian Series of podcasts with Aussie blacksmiths. He would like to bring awareness of the craft to the Australian public as well as grow the education opportunities for blacksmiths.
• The Australian Series of podcasts will include interviewing:
  • Lindsay Cole, the head instructor at Ultimo Tafe (TAFE – stands for Technical And Further Education government funded college) for the trade training of industrial blacksmiths
  • Matt Mewburn, Matt is a successful graduate of Lindsay's teaching and is now running classes himself at the historic Eveleigh Railway Blacksmith Shop as well as running his own business.
  • Amanda Gibson, coordinated the Tree Project, a mammoth undertaking in time, resilience and determination. The Tree project is a memorial to the people who lost their lives in the Black Saturday Bushfires of 2009. It is a full sized tree forged from Stainless Steel covered with over three thousand leaves from around the world. It is set in a very peaceful garden setting with forged timber and steel seating and a lovely garden, it is a special place you cannot help but be touched when you visit it.
  • Denise Axelsen is another Blacksmith that I think would bring an interesting perspective. Denise trained at Hereford at the same time as Mark Aspery and she is a past secretary of BABA. She has travelled to a number of places to live and that is a story in itself, Blacksmithing in Saudi Arabia (as a woman). In Perth, Australia, Cairns, Australia and now a new forge in rural Victoria.
• Gameco will be the sponsor of this series because the owner, Corwin, has been the driving force and playing a large part in supplying and growing the bladesmith and blacksmith craft there in Australia.

Guest Links

• Ultimo TAFE – Blacksmithing Advanced Course
• Gameco - http://gameco.com.au/
• Anyang power hammer videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesrjohn

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – Gameco Artisan Supplies

Toby Druce is making a mid-life career change to become a blacksmith. He is from the Toronto area in Ontario Canada and has been a social worker with the City of Toronto for the past 29 years. He has decided to change career paths and learn to become a blacksmith by attending the Fleming College Blacksmith Program over the next 15 weeks. Toby and I will be doing a 4-part podcast series, 4 interviews while he is going through this transition in life and through the Fleming College Blacksmith Program over the next 15 weeks, starting September 2016, by the time this podcast is released he will have been in the program for one week. This episode was recorded a week before Toby starts the program, which is in Haliburton, Ontario, and we are talking about why he chose blacksmithing and what he plans to do with it at the end of the program.

What We Talked About

• Toby Druce has been a social worker and grants administrator for the past 29 years working with municipal homeless and street outreach programs for the City of Toronto, Ontario Canada.
• Toby was first drawn to blacksmithing when he took a beginner class at a local high school, in their auto body shop.
• When toby lost his job in 2015 he knew this was a great opportunity to pursue blacksmithing as a career. He looked at blacksmith programs in the UK and Canada and choose the Fleming College blacksmith program through the Haliburton School of Art and Design because of the condensed 15-week program.
• The courses covered are: Forging Basics, History of Ornamental Ironwork, Drawing, Artistic Blacksmith - Projects I, Design, Marketing/Portfolio Development, and Artistic Blacksmith - Projects II.
• For Toby, choosing the path to become a blacksmith was not for the monetary gains (which we know can be a very difficult path to financial freedom!) but instead to use his social working skills along with the blacksmith skills to further the work of social working organizations.
• The program requires 600 hours of shop forge time and for each student to have 8 finished pieces to start your own body of work. The student will then learn how to photograph the eight pieces and professionally create a portfolio to present to a gallery.
• Toby will be turning 50 in November, in the middle of the program and he couldn't think of a better way to spend his 50th

Guest Links

• Fleming College Artist blacksmith program - http://flemingcollege.ca/programs/artist-blacksmith/courses

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – Fleming College

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Heather and Kevin Harvey from South Africa, they are both Master Bladesmiths with the American Bladesmith Society. They attained their M.S stamps in 2003 making them, at that time, the only married couple Mastersmiths. Heather was the second lady Master Bladesmith. I think now there are four ladies that have their MS stamps and one other married couple Mastersmiths worldwide. They are the only Master Bladesmiths on the African continent. Both are also members of the Knifemakers' Guild of Southern Africa and founder members of the Southern African Bladesmiths Association. Both are authorised instructors in Bladesmithing with the ABS. Regular classes are presented at their Heavin Forge Bladesmithing Studio and School in South Africa. The two will be travelling here to the Us and demonstrating at the SOFA Quad state round up.

What We Talked About

• The couple met each other at a historical theme park, Gold Reef City, a re-creation of Johannesburg as a mining town 100 years ago. Heather was the blacksmith on site and Kevin was helping the woodworker in his workshop. Eventually they began spending a lot of time together in each workshop, so much that the management decided to move the workshops closer together!
• They both enjoy many outdoor activities together such as fly fishing, four wheeling, and taking care of their 4 horses (which are named after weapons, Assagai, Bowie, Tomahawk). And their sheep named Valiant.
• In 1998 they both traveled to the American Bladesmith School in Arkansas for training. After returning to South Africa, they immediately founded the Southern African Bladesmiths Association (S.A.B.A) along with Bertie Rietveld and Tom Nelson. They had at least 100 people show up for their first "hammer-in" , this was due to the fact that no one was forging knives at the time, most knifemakers were using the stock removal process. So seeing forging techniques and heat treatment processes was very new to the current knifemakers in the area.
• Kevin and Heather were involved with creating a marking schedule to be used by the Knifemakers' Guild of Southern Africa's evaluation committee in order to allow forged knives to be recognized and for people to attain guild membership by submitting forged knives. In 2003 Heather was the first person to pass their Guild evaluation using forged blades.
• In 2003 they both received their Master Smith certifications in Atlanta with the American Bladesmith Society.
• The recent television program "Forged in Fire" has helped fill Kevin and Heather's knife classes they offer at Heavin Forge. In fact, they are booked full until June of 2017!
• Their shop consists of three rooms: the clean room where they perform hand work, the dusty room is where the belt grinders are housed and the hot house room where all of the forging happens. They have enough stations for 6 students at one time.
• Due to the lack of good quality anvils being available in South Africa, Kevin designed an anvil pattern and had a group of 12 cast. He talks about the process and what it was like seeking out foundries and heat treaters in South Africa.
• They will be coming to the US to demonstrate at the SOFA Quad State Round up in September 2016. The demonstration will be making a Zulu Assegai (spear) where the blade length, excluding the narrow tang, is between 14 – 16 inches. The demo will involve forging the blade, heat treating it, grinding and polishing. The wooden shaft will be made at their home in South Africa from royal wood known as "pink ivory" which was only used by Zulu chiefs in their weapons. Heather will be giving a presentation and lecture on the Zulu culture and the history of the Assegai weapon.
• Heather is not able to forge anymore due to having some injuries to her right thumb and left forearm. The injuries are not related to forging, they were separate accidents that happened on their farm.

Guest Links

• Heavin Forge Website – heavinforge.co.za
• American Bladesmith Society - http://www.americanbladesmith.com/

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor –Sothern Ohio Forge and Anvil organization, http://www.sofablacksmiths.org/index.html

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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For today's episode, I have Delyth Done from England, her hardworking and dedicated efforts are indispensable in promoting and developing artist blacksmiths in today's modern world. Delyth is the Course Leader for the MA in Contemporary Crafts and the BA for the Artist Blacksmith program at Hereford College of Arts. She also is the coordinator of an upcoming major international contemporary forged metal exhibition called "Transition" that will open at the Ypres International blacksmithing event in Belgium starting September 1st, 2016.

What We Talked About

• Delyth has a clay background for her education which includes a Bachelor of Art and a Masters from the Royal College of Art in London. After her education, she exhibited her clay art in many venues and also completed some bronze castings.
• She began as a ceramics and clay teacher at an art school in Cardiff that offers a single discipline Ceramics degree. This led to becoming the course director for the program at the school.
• After a few years of running the ceramics program in Cardiff, Delyth felt that she would like to move to the next step in her career. A position opened at the Hereford College of the Arts to oversee all of the programs at the college, Delyth applied and was hired.
• After being at Hereford for 10 years and working with the students, Delyth saw the need for a master's program to be developed for the contemporary art students, so Delyth, along with a coworker, developed a 45 week Master's degree program in Contemporary Craft.
• Hereford College of the Arts offers a 3-year Artist Blacksmiths program that teaches a solid grounding in history and in critical ways of thinking about creative practice. This is done by simultaneously teaching process and design creation, always pushing the student to generate design ideas from their inspirations. The program also includes a professional work placement, creating a professional portfolio and business plan.
• Delyth talks about her ABANA conference experience in Salt Lake City and how she led a series of lectures along with Rick Smith and Heiner Zimmerman.
• The Ypres International Blacksmithing Event will be held in Ypres, Belgium, September 1 – 6th and Delyth has organized a lecture series with some of the 24 master blacksmiths that have been selected to forge a panel during the event.
• Another project that Delyth is spearheading involves coordinating a major international, contemporary, forged metal touring exhibition, called "Transition" to coincide with the Ypres event and then continuing on, travelling to other countries and galleries. The exhibition's theme is about the transitions that happen during the first world war in landscape, languages, and process.
• The exhibition drew over 90 art submissions from 15 different countries. A panel of 5 judges took 6 weeks to look over the submissions and select 40 pieces of art to be in the exhibition.

Guest Links

• Hereford College of Arts website - http://www.hca.ac.uk/Courses/University-Level/BA-(Hons)/Artist-Blacksmithing
• Ypres International Blacksmith Event website – Ypres2016.com

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – www.Ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Phillip Vercammen is a Belgian Blacksmith that has been invited to design a forged panel for the Ypres 2016 International Event in Belgium.

What We Talked About

• Philip received a degree in 1986 for graphic design. He then went to the Academy of Fine Art in Brussels, Belgium for 7 years and received a Blacksmithing degree. Belgium is one of the only countries in the world that has an art school sponsored by the Government and it offers a Blacksmithing degree!
• Philip is now a teacher for the blacksmith program at the Academy. Besides teaching the skills and techniques of the craft he also teaches about the history of ornamental ironwork to his students.
• As a teacher, Philip encourages his students to draw every day to help enhance their own style and body of work. He thinks it is very important to sketch ideas out first and then make a scaled 1:1 drawing before going into the shop.

• Philip's design for the Ypres panel has beautiful pointed tabs as connections that wrap around a rod. The tabs are part of three masks that are the main design of the panel. The three masks represent the three fates. Three sisters appeared in Greek and Roman mythology and were believed to "spin out" the destiny of a child at birth, through spinning the thread of life. Their names in Greek were Clotho, ("the spinner"), Lachesis ("the apportioner", measurer) and Atropos ("the inevitable", the cutter).
• He will make and bring very fine chisels to the Ypres event because his design involves a lot of fine cuts for the pointed tabs.
• Philip two grandfathers were involved with WW1, one worked in a war camp and escaped and the other grandfather was in the underground Resistance.
• Philip is also the editor of the Belgian Blacksmith Association's newsletter that is released every three months, it is called "The Rivet". The Association has around 200 members.

Will Maguire is a multi-award winning contemporary blacksmith and sculptor with over 10 years' experience, one of a very few contemporary blacksmiths in Australia, just outside of Sydney. He brings blacksmithing into the 21st Century, with a combination of striking contemporary design whilst keeping the integrity of the craft intact with his use of traditional skills learned from masters overseas.

What We Talked About

• Industrially trained in Australia as a blacksmith and boiler maker. He has spent several years as a journeyman overseas working, learning and collaborating with some of the best smiths in England, USA, Russia, Europe, Ukraine and
• Ultimo TAFE is the only school that teaches blacksmithing in Australia, it is in Sydney. The program focuses on industrial blacksmithing.
• Will thinks that the blacksmith craft is growing in Australia, though it is still a pretty small community. Their New South Wales Blacksmith Association has about 130 members.
• After learning the industrial smithing, Will decided to travel abroad to experience artistic blacksmithing. Will was able to work with Terry Clark on two sets of large gates for Oxford University.
• Getting blacksmith tools is difficult in Australia, but there is a company who is now distributing a few blacksmith supply tools, the company is Gameco Pty Ltd. The CEO of the company is sponsoring Will to go to the Ypres event to forge a panel for the cenotaph sculpture.
• The title of his Ypres panel design is "Human Tangle" and it has a few abstract human forms with elongated arms and legs entangled with each other. Expressing the progression and regression of determining what is right from wrong, determining their own fate.
• The human forms will be riveted to the frame and where they cross each other he will pin (a very small rivet) them together.
• Will really enjoyed the process of coming up with a bunch of designs for the Ypres panel and he may pursue them in future pieces.

Guest Links

• Website: http://www.willblacksmith.com.au/

Thank you to Ypres 2016 International Blacksmithing Event, www.ypres2016.com

From Kitchener, Ontario, Sandra Dunn is one of the owners of Two Smiths, a studio that creates contemporary forged metalwork. She regularly collaborates with builders and other artists on architectural projects, restoration and large scale public art. She'll be one of 25 master blacksmiths at the Ypres 2016 International Blacksmithing Event in Belgium, where she will lead a team to develop one of 25 unique panels for a large World War I Cenotaph.

What We Talked About

• Sandra received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Waterloo University, but discovered blacksmithing while in a painting class with a friend who worked with a glass artist. That artist set up a forge to make lamps and after Sandra came in to try it, the thee set up a shop together.
• After a year at the shop, Sandra gave up her night job teaching art to focus on blacksmithing full time. She says she knew nothing and had no skills, but took two weekend courses and attended some ABANA conferences. "That's really what enabled me to learn. Just the environment of people who are extremely open and friendly."
• After forging full time for four years, Sandra joined with coppersmith Stephen White. They worked together 14 years, which allowed her to learn about how to work with copper.
• Dunn recently won a public art competition for a piece that's displayed at the Waterloo Service Center (the city department that deals with sewers). She describes the piece as a section of "sewer pipe" suspended 12' in the air with a column of copper "water" coming from the pipe and three fish swimming in and out of the water before it pours into a drain in the ground.
• Sandra explains how several grants have enabled her to travel, research and ultimately build several pieces, including a commercial door using a full sheet of copper.
• Dunn's best advice on landing grants is to have really good photos of your work. She says her writing skills and English degree also come in handy.
• Sandra spent 12 years as a seasonal instructor at Haliburton College of Fine Arts in Ontario teaching Forge Fundamentals, Applied Design and History of Ornamental Ironwork, but ultimately left because of the 4-hour commute and the increasing time commitment.
• For this September's Ypres International Blacksmithing event in Belgium, Sandra will appear as a master blacksmith. She will design and build one panel of 25 that will surround a 12-ton World War I Cenotaph (empty tomb) to be installed in a public park.
• Her panel design consists of several plant stalks leaning at angles and at different heights. Each one will have about 20 bronze discs as flower tops to represent the ID tags the soldiers wore. Each disc will be stamped with words from actual letters describing the soldier's experiences, desires and fears.
• Sandra's father is a veteran and her grandfather fought in WWI, so this piece has significant personal meaning to her.
• As for the techniques involved in creating the piece on the spot, she's feeling confident. She will use traditional joinery techniques and try to keep it simple so it can be installed in the two day window.

Guest Links

• www.twosmiths.ca

James Makely is an artist blacksmith in Colorado, USA. He works full time as an artist blacksmith with the award winning design company, Living Design Studios.

What We Talked About

• At 12 years old, James became interested in the blacksmith craft one year when he saw a blacksmith hammering on an anvil at a local fair.
• He soon became active in the local Appalachian Blacksmith Association to learn and expand his skills.
• The book "Country Blacksmithing" by Charles McRaven was a great resource for James, as well as "Professional Smithing" by Darryl Streeter.
• To further his career as a blacksmith he applied for an apprenticeship with Dragon Forge in Colorado. Craig May introduced James to being a modern blacksmith by using modern blacksmith equipment, hydraulic presses, and power hammers. He was an apprentice there for 5 years.
• For the past 10 years, he has been the main artist blacksmith at Living Design Studios, Inc. They design and create large commercial commissions as well as private residential commissions.
• James has been picked to be a Master blacksmith at the Ypres 2016 International Blacksmith event. His panel design was one of the winning designs picked from the 104 designs submitted.
• His panel design includes nine different examples of shovels from WW1. Each shovel has its own unique design based on the country of where it was made.
• When asked how he came up with the idea of using shovels in his design, he said the simple utilitarian item played a big role each soldier's lives during that time, in living, in surviving and in death. When looking at old pictures from WW1, you would almost always see a shovel in the picture.
• While attending the event in Belgium, James will take a full-size drawing of the panel and possibly a small maquette to help with communicating the design to his assisting smiths.

Guest Links

Living Design Studios, Inc website - http://livingdesignstudios.com/

A Big Thank You to today's sponsor – www.ypres2016.com

If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you would support the show by:

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Thanks so much for your support!