ABOUT THE BLACKSMITH

"When I was young, I had a fascination with anything to do with medieval times - books, movies, artifacts like tools and weapons, facts like how the societies were organized, what people ate, what they wore, and the kinds of homes in which they lived. Those must have been wild times. People really had to take care of and provide for themselves, and blacksmithing was a big part of their lives - used to create everything from household tools to weapons. Today, blacksmithing gives me a chance to step back to early times - to work as the ancient craftsmen did. I even try to use traditional tools of the trade as much as possible.

I also had a healthy fascination with fantasy - closely related to my fascination with medieval things, I suppose. A lot of my drawings as a kid were based on fantastic themes - enchanted mountain peaks spiraling toward the sky, mystical-looking, heavily embellished "instruments" - for want of a better word - that look like something a sorcerer might employ in casting a spell. I think that the properties of metal make it an ideal medium for bringing these things from the page into reality - so we're back to blacksmithing again.

Blacksmithing has been a rewarding hobby for me, and a great lesson in history. Blacksmithing really is a part of everyone's heritage, and I encourage even people who aren't interested in taking it up themselves to learn more about it."