Posted on July 10: Molding a monk using iron and fire
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/CanIRON_1.jpg” caption=”Eddie Payne”]Want to know how to weld a monk? First, you take iron. Then you add fire.
Master blacksmith Eddie Payne will show you how today in the Zone 1 parking lot. He is one of 12 artists displaying blacksmith talent at McMaster July 10-13.
During the fourth annual CanIRON Conference, called “Share Our Fire”, blacksmiths are providing demonstrations on welding, firing and molding iron. Six rows of Zone 1 are blocked off at the north-east side of the lot, north of Les Prince Field for the event. The public is invited to view some of the demonstrations, although most sections are reserved for conference participants. More than 250 participants from North America and Europe are attending the conference, with many staying in residence.
“I'm really excited,” says organizer Rowlande Rozon, also an artist and blacksmith. “We're expecting a lot of guests from the general public, as well as artists, blacksmiths and galleries.”
She hopes the conference keeps the fire in blacksmithing alive. “What we're trying to do is make sure the art is passed on and it's not lost on future generations,” she says. That is why demonstrations are so important, she says, since artists learn the art by watching and learning from others.
Rozon has been a blacksmith artist for several years. “I love metal and the feeling of transformation of metal.”
It's the same for others. For Payne, who is visiting from England, blacksmithing is in his blood. It has been for more than 40 years. While today he'll give a demonstration on monk-making, he also constructs big gates, new builds in England and overseas, and also restoration work in London. He also creates smaller items such as pokers, toasting forks and paperknives. Other demonstrators include Doug Newell, a British blacksmith that now resides in Calgary, who will display air hammer use for making artistic ironwork. Scott Lankton will forge handguns into artwork and Cairn Cunnane will produce decorative motifs. Click here for a list, description and schedule of all demonstrators.
The Ontario Artists Blacksmiths Association conference is a biennial convention linking Canadian blacksmith chapters, coppersmiths, silversmiths, farriers and all other metalworking professionals and artists. Demonstrators from North America and Europe will showcase all facets of the blacksmith's art, from beginning techniques to power hammer usage to traditional art deco to knife making.
An art gallery also is also set up in T-28 building, the temporary classroom on the southeast tennis court (west of the Ivor Wynne Centre).
Photo captions: Master blacksmith Eddie Payne, left and bottom photo, and apprentice Jim Buchanon, demonstrate monk-making at the CanIRON Conference. Photo credit: Chantall Van Raay
