“What can hot forging offer that nothing else can?”

I had a tutorial on Tuesday that got me thinking, I guess that’s what there meant to do. It wasn’t so much about my current brief but more about my making style. The question was “What can hot forging offer that nothing else can?” My answer, well I answered as best as possible but, I don’t really have an answer yet and neither did my tutor.

I understand that Hot forging processes are sort after in the industry to give steel certain properties. These properties can only be imbued into the steel by using heat and force/ impact. Some types of forging can give very particular aesthetic qualities. These qualities are sort after and utilized by smith to create a desired finish or form allowing them to convey ideas through a style. On a very personal scale a smith gains a unique bond to his work as it is very labour intensive.

So I have decided to look at other blacksmiths and their work. I haven’t really done this yet and I guess that this is a little naughty. But I was surprised that I found lots of smith that make work that I really like. They seem to be translating ideas that I also have about forging in their pieces showing form, forge style and qualities that I would like to express in my work.

Work by Albert Paley, Chaudio Bottero and Tim Cisneros don’t really do anything for me for the most part any way. I don’t like busy cluttered things any way so some of these guys work really does me in. For me these pieces seem to be based heavily on speed and rapid process.

On the other hand work by people like Richard Weaver, Matt Haugh, Greg Gehner and Roberto Giordani really get me going. The simple uses of form, making the most of both negative and positive spaces. They use a series of well made interlinking components that really have a feel of time, effort and contemplation. They produce piece that consist only of what is needed nothing more or less. They also seem to consider what the metal can do rather than just how it looks.


Richard Weaver

Matt Haugh

Greg Gehner

Roberto Giordani

There is no such word as can't.

So I haven't been blogging much over the summer but the new term is here and I’m going to try and blog at least once a week. At the later part of the year and over the summer I have really narrowed down a style now and I’m quite keen to apply it to my work and the new modules. I produce several pieces for the HE sample wall in the last couple of week of term last year and they have really got me thinking. So for quite a large part of the summer in my own time I looked at how I am and what makes me tick.

I have been looking at some of HR Giger's work for the film pieces to his more sculptural work. I really enjoy both the dark sexual imagery but also their modern and influential design. As part of this I have been looking at the films that he has made concept art for and drawing ideas from these films like Alien and the newly realised Prometheus.

I have also been exploring Art deco design and using images from the period along with the ideas of Giger to produce some shapes and forms that I then apply to idea. I really enjoy The stuff that came out of the early 1900's. I think something change in the ideas of design and what design is. Aesthetics idea’s where still important but so was progression. The idea of make materials work at their limits forcing ideas to work opposed to saying the only way is this way. The stat of the century was more we can rather than we cannot.

I also decided that I was going to try and narrow down what it was I intend to do. Who I am and what I’m trying to do. So what did I realise and what am I doing?

I’m not a blacksmith I am an engineer. As an engineer I use processes and materials to overcome a problem. Some times multiple processes are required and combinations of materials. This is no different from the plant we all share. We are not singular forms we all depend on each other and everything around use. We all share a unique link to everything on this planet from the Moon in the sky to the trees on the ground.

We are nothing without everything.

The great City of London

As I travelled through London town the other day I was reminded what a beautiful contradiction it is. A heaving mass of very old, old and new; money can be seen every were but if you know where to look poverty isn’t far away. Pride is also at an abundance as is disgrace; you can find traces of every culture on earth and bodies from ever continent both animal and insect. You can see memories of the past and dreams of the future and it is in the present that I find myself.

I have always loved travelling through London and I find something new is reveals to me little by little each time I visit her, but she still has plenty of secrets left to show me. London town has grown over the centuries to become one of the heaviest populated cities in the world and some times it feels like it and as a result its history is massive. But for me it is still a system an organism that succeeds because of all its inputs.

It is like a brain or a hive centre in witch other things out side of it are allowed to happen. Very little is acutely made in the brain but it is the birth place of ideas and dreams. It is the home to the systems controls and it is where all the nice stuff is keep. But keeping this place a live is its transport networks the roads, trains lines, river and skies. One of the things that I found most interesting and always have are the underground train lines.

The London underground is one of the oldest underground train network in the world and parts were built as early as 1863. This can be seen in the design and construction of stations all over the network, many platforms have a Victorian feel and play host to some of the finest design of the time. As the network grow the platforms have a more art deco feel and there is a very real sense of modern Briton growing out of them, this could also be felt in the design and lay out of the station entrances and ticket booths. A growing City needs a competent and good transport system. As a result in 1933 London transport was created and has grown ever since this not only included The London Underground but the bus and tram services.

The underground or its more affectionate name The Tube wanted to show its modern and innovative side and as a result the complex maps of the past changed and the Tube map was born. Based on a electrical wiring diagram Harry Beck created what we have all come to know as the London Underground map. At first it was seen as a radical idea as it doesn’t show the accurate scale and location of stations, but what it does do is show how the stations link and how to get from A-B. Most transport maps all over the world have been based on this idea.

It is this current system that I uses and I find fascinating, there has been a lot of work on the current network and this modern and growing system still wants to be seen as a sophisticated and clever beast. The newest platforms and stations have an air of simplistic whilst embracing all my wants and needs. They are clever places that allow me to access London and its many sites and attritions or mealy allow me to pass through with out a trace. But as you pass along the massive darkened tunnels you are give glimpse of the labyrinth of cables and wires that make the system work and survive. This cables remind me of the veins and nerves in the body transporting information and recourses so that the ideas can move around the brain.

A Simple End

For my final ICP piece I have used a finishing technique that has taken quite a lot of experimentation. The finish not only uses a very random and unpredictable outcome but there is a sense of commitment to the fire. Also there is a massive amount of variation on finish quality depending on time in the fire, type of news paper used and modification to the paper.



The idea is simple but when done right it is very affective and also the simpler the better. Basically the finished Iron work is tightly wrapped in newspaper and this paper is burnt off, but there are a lot of variations that can change the finish. Firstly and most importantly is the speed and rate of burn I have found that a hot fire doesn’t work and will burn the paper to fast and then burn of the blackening. So a simple wood fire or a blowtorch works best the slower and longer the burn the better. Secondly paper type and thickness is most important good quality paper will almost defiantly affect the finish and more layers prevent blackening. Also magazine paper does not work well there are too many glosses and laminates on the paper and this prevents a “good clean” paper soot sticking to the metal. It will also stop the addition of coppers and tins in the ink sticking to the work that gives you the close up beetle shell finish.



And on the subject of ink the more on the paper the more colour change if you are looking for a nice green or blue then use newspaper with lot of images and thick text on it. I tried adding ink but this made little difference. Staining the paper with other inks does little to change the colour but this might be due to the type of fire I was using as there was hardly any soot transfer in fact I’m sure this is the reason why. I’m keen to try this more and also I’m keen to try wood chip finish also. Maybe trying different types of inks and paper and making some of my own prints. Also I would like to add copper and brass dust to the paper and see what happens.

At the Turn of the Last Century

At the turn of the 20th century there was a change in culture all over Europe. The idea of having commodities and designing being as important as function was born. Machinery and technology meant that high quality products could be made at a much lower price than before. As a result more attention can be spent on function and how it looks. Not only were these products functional, modern and sexualy utilizing the very best that science and technology could offer but they would change how we viewed art. It would change the way the masses would consider what art was, how it should look and who was allowed it.

Technology and science grow at an extremely fast rate man was learning about the world he lives in more and more. This relentless growth was only matched by the imaginations of the designers and artists that would sculpt the landscapes of the cities and factories we would occupy. This grow would come with a toll and that was war, but this wasn’t going to stop the growth but make it faster and both the first and second world wars would change our lives forever.
I really enjoy the unique aesthetics that was born during this period of time and find that it not only influences my creative taste but it truly satisfies my ideas. In the early part of the 20th century a lot happened and ideas of lifestyle began to change on both ends of the spectrum. In Russia there was revolution and the birth of communism in Europe the idea of commodity was born. Both ideas having a very similar undertones making life better for all through growth and mass prosperity.

Art became the platform for these ideas with artists like Marcel Du Champ, Dmitry Moor and Joseph Csaky describing the then current culture and making their work available to the masses. Using their work they encouraged men and women to support the current political climate. Describe the beauty of industry and show us how science will inevitably make are lives better even though we are just animals. Or simply making art available for the common folk. These artists and many more also speared the imaginations of millions and pushed the ideas of future in to our hearts and minds.

Below is a series of images that I have chosen for their aesthetic qualities mostly. They are a range of media, architecture, sculpture and feature. There is a common theme running through the selection, they mostly depict images from the early part of the 20th century but there are some modern images also. These more modern images have played a massive role in the selection of the other images like the 1998-2001 Batman images. (I spent a lot of my childhood playing with batman toys.) These batman images also explain my selection of human figurative images that I have made. I love the very athletic look that has been given to all of the figures both male and female. Yes they are very attractive but I believe it is more that they are also capable of fighting or working that makes them most appalling.

I have also selected images that have a certain line and shape quality. The shape and line selection is very stylish but have been carefully chosen. There is a sense of simplicity to the images but they hold a massive amount of details and information. The image, especially the figurative images have a very emotive feel they show stronger powerful forms and suggest young modern and cool ideas of a bright future. I really enjoy the Art Deco look and this fits perfectly with my ideas of Japanese culture and styles. Simple, cool, and modern.

The Vessel of My Ideas

For our current module ICP we have been asked to look at ourselves and ask who we are and what we want to make. I have reached the part of the module where I have to think about what I want to make. Now this has been somewhat of an odd process for me as I have a lot of ideas and the function of these ideas isn’t always clear. I am also learning that the interpretation of what I produce is very different from person to person.

On the 14th of May I handed in a body of work that consisted of sketch books, samples and written ideas. All of these pieces showed how I see the world around me and how I like to see the world as mechanical equipment. Its how I have learnt to understand the world I live in. I have also learnt that control is of the upmost importance to me and I use this idea to give my work a unique aesthetic. I produce all of my own sections and use it to create pieces that show the human form mechanically. But what is the function of my work?

As a Blacksmith it seems the purpose or function (more function in this instance) is very important. In fact it almost out ways the aesthetic qualities of the piece rendering them as an add-on. In turn this can spoil or take away from both the aesthetic and the function of the piece. I believe this is a fall bare of the past and has come from the idea that the role of a smith is to create tools that can be used. Just adding to that function is stupid and often creates very ugly work. The fact that it is well made or works is irrelevant now. I was told by a blacksmith on my first day on the course that as makers we all produce four types of work.

1. Well made, good design
2. Well made, bad design
3. Poorly made, good design
4. Poorly made, bad design

As a crafts person is there truly a point to all of this, does my work need a function and should I be making things? Does the design really hold any weight at all? And then finally what am I going to make? We often have tutorials during the course of the modules and these are designed to assess and check on our progress. They can be quite deep and emotional and often lead to the miss interpretation on both side tutor and student. I quite enjoy the contact I have with most of the tutors and assisting staff but there input can be confusing and misleading at times but this is mostly due to miss understanding on both parts. It is how you chose to translate this input that is most important.

So I have decided on both the function and the piece I’m going to make. I have quite a large body of work in my sketch book that shows human anatomy from muscle tissue to the inside of the human eye. I have then modified these images and produced sketches that show a mechanical idea of the same body part. I have produced ideas, theory’s and images that not support what I want to make but that assist in there construction. I then produced samples of components that are in my drawings, extracting ideas constructing them and then playing with the concept. Then I played around with the idea of what it was that I would make. What functional thing I would produce and how I would add my aesthetic to it.

I tried to find things that would not only look good but have function, but this is counter intuitive for me as I use my aesthetic to describe how stuff works so making something that works cannot work. So I have chosen to create “Her”, she will be sculpture and her function.

New Cogs for an Old Machine

A much Wiser and old gentleman said this to me quite recently and it got the old cogs turning. “Well you have to remember you’re just a new set of cogs for an old machine!” I would love to think he was wrong but I’m starting to think he might be on to something. As part of the course we are expected to have an understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it, but this isn’t easy. What I have learnt is that I’m not the sum of my own ideas and that there is a side that I have never seen.

There are parts of me that are well understood and studied through self motivated learning but as I grow older I find parts of my life that have sub-consciously developed and played a very important role in my life. My ideas of the world I live in and the role I play in the community and environment. Where do I stand, what is my task and most importantly who am I? Do I serve a function as a cog in a much greater machine, am I mealy the years of a developed operation. If I am made to feel as if I have been given a choice will that satisfy my hunger to exist? Maybe not but something I have developed is an innate sense of duty and I have a load to carry and I should carry it. I don’t carry it for the ultimate goal of the machine but for the other load barriers, my fellow cogs.


It is the one thing that I wasn’t expecting to find here in Hereford. I am learning about me and my role now more than ever. And yes the result of my actions have lead me here, but it is the close intermit study of myself that has truly lead to my most recent realisation. We are all part of the machine and we all have a role but it is how we chose to succeed that gives us weight and meaning. It’s the choices that we make that determine who we are and what we will become. It is the battles we choose to fight or the people we surround ourselves with these may ultimately be the only choices that one has but if they are made knowingly then you are at risk of becoming a cog in a machine.