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| Hot Iron Muster 2008
Visiting Instructor: Kirk McNeill, California, USA Demonstration Day: Sunday 27th September
Mon 28th Sep– Fri 3rd Oct
A desire to make his own tools for stone and wood carving first attracted Kirk to the craft in 1981. While doing a course in bronze casting at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, he took a short term class in toolmaking. His interest in blacksmithing grew quickly, and before too long set up his first workshop. By the late 1980’s he had begun teaching, and was invited to run the teaching workshop at the annual Conference for the California Blacksmiths Assoc (CBA). Looking for opportunities to further improve his skills, Kirk received a grant from CBA to attend the International Teaching Centre for Metal Design run by renowned smith Manfred Bredohl in Aachen, Germany. He spent two months working alongside the smiths at Vulkanschmiede (Vulcan’s Forge) in their day-to-day production of forged metalwork. As he puts it, “I learnt just how much I didn’t know about blacksmithing”. On his return to Santa Cruz, Kirk gradually expanded his ironwork business, doing mainly architectural work and forged sculpture. He has remained actively involved with the CBA, and served on the board of directors. He took part in the 1992 ABANA Conference at San Luis Obispo in California, and teaching and demonstrating at specialty workshops and conferences continues to be a particular passion. One of Kirk’s specialties is the bamboo form, which adds an extra dimension to decorative ironwork. The 5-day hands on workshop will focus on Bamboo ‘Forgery’, first developing the tooling to forge bamboo, and then combine traditional and contemporary joinery techniques to create a unique Hat/Coat Rack and other projects.
Registrations open from July 1. Contact us for an information and registration kit. |
