BlacksmitHER Radio

Episode #23 – Mary Hackett “The Australian women’s blacksmith group called Blacksmith Doris”

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Mary Hackett is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts at TAFE Technical College where she is examining and mapping the physical forces involved in blacksmithing processes through sculptural practices. Hackett began as a jeweler and metalsmith in the early 1980s; over the past six years, her interests have expanded to include blacksmithing. A metalsmith is someone who works and shapes various types of metals, where a blacksmith’s main metal is wrought iron or steel.  She is a co-founder of Blacksmith Doris, a blacksmithing group just for women in Melbourne Australia ("Doris" is an old British slang expression for a plain woman). Blacksmith Doris has been operating as a “side” group that is part of the Australian Blacksmiths Association (the Victoria chapter) for the past five years and aims to give women a place to learn and practice blacksmithing in an all-female environment.  A group of eight to ten women meet once a month, creating a Doris Day, at the ABA’s barn to make and learn from and with other women. Some Doris-es enjoy learning traditional blacksmithing techniques while others just come to hit the metal, happy to see where that process will take them. 

What We Talked About

 

  • Mary went to college for jewelry and silversmithing, after which she attended a master’s program in "Jewelry Engineering". She has recently started a PhD program that involves researching the interaction of smithing with the dynamics of the arms and hands.

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    • She currently teaches silversmithing at a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) College in Melbourne Australia.

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      • Recently, in 2014, she traveled to Helsinki, Finland, at Alto University to make a speech and write a paper about the quenching process of a steel ball.

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        • She and Kirstie Stewart co-founded the “Blacksmith Doris” group in 2009.

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          • To become a Blacksmith Doris, you need to be a member of the Australian Blacksmith Association. The Doris group meets near Melbourne, Australia, once a month.

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            • The Australian Blacksmith Association in Victoria meets every two weeks. An annual membership is $70 (AUD).

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              • She gives three points of advice to women who are just starting out with blacksmithing :
                • Don’t let society’s norms frighten you; there were female blacksmiths in the middle ages!
                • Try not to be a women pretending to be a man while blacksmithing. Just be yourself.
                • Think about what blacksmithing can do for you in the 21st century. Don’t pretend you are maker in another time - be a maker for the current century.

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                  • And lastly Mary talks about the differences between the industrial and handmade pieces, and the consequences of these two approaches within the environment in which we live.

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                    Guest Links

                     

                    Mary’s Website – http://maryjanehackett.blogspot.com/

                     

                    Blacksmith Doris website - http://blacksmithdoriswomenblacksmiths.blogspot.com/

                     

                    Australian Blacksmith Association (Vic) Inc - http://www.abavic.org.au/

                     

                    A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Nimba Anvils, www.nimbaanvils.com

                     

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