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I came to the world of the Artistic Blacksmith relatively late in my working life, having worked in various fields including Micro film, Model Making and I.T. but I knew that there had to be more for me, something I really enjoyed and could excel at. I knew from my love of cars that I enjoyed working with metal, changing its shape and creating, 
and really admired the craftsmen that produce exquisite car bodies from flat sheets of metal with a few tools, but really didn’t want to make my hobby my job. Somehow, and I’m still not sure how, I found blacksmithing, specifically a three day beginners course, so I signed up, fell in love with the creative process, and have never looked back.

I have had some lucky breaks work wise, managing to find an employer in North East London that was willing to take on someone with virtually no ‘real world’ experience in blacksmithing and fabrication. I learned a lot here, mainly fabrication skills, and it was a sound building block for my development.

I really wanted to forge steel, bend and mold it into something new, and this role was no longer fulfilling me, so I started looking locally, and through a tattoo emporium in Guildford, I found a job working alongside a master blacksmith. Although I didn’t get many chances to work on the forge, I watched and listened and absorbed as much as I could. Again I learned many new skills, and started to appreciate the true skill of a blacksmith.

The time came when I felt that I needed to ‘do my own thing’, so the Hot Metal Works was born. I love my work, manipulating a seemingly unforgiving material, and turning it into objects of beauty and often function as well.

Hot Metal Works