I always dappled in art and wanting to create sculptures and furniture tried ceramic but too fragile, and wood and myself never got on, just the thought of it makes me itchy!
After years of travelling the world my father who had always been fascinated by blacksmithing took me to see a neighbour who was a blacksmith. He was one of the few master blacksmiths in Canada, who had done work for Hollywood films and multimillion dollar homes in Aspen and the likes. As soon as I saw him working I loved it, the dirt, the heat, the strength of metal and how with just fire and a bit of sweat metal could be shaped into almost anything.
I took a course with the blacksmith (Joe) that he was offering, then was lucky enough to work with him for a couple of years as well as volunteering at a historical ranch demonstrating traditional blacksmithing skills. Being lucky enough to have duel citizenship I thought I’d return to England and look into course and qualification that were on offer here, as Canadian has no formal training for blacksmithing. Instead I fell into a job in metal fabrication where I was able to learn many practical skills in welding and metal working
7 or so years in fabrication welding up farm equipment, cars, structural steel work, gates, rails, and many other things, by night doing more artistic metal work. Now life as giving me a new career as a mother and thought I’d take the opportunity to return to what I love to do making unique piece of metal work.
