Blacksmithing

Update – April 2018! This piece has been given a permanent home at The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, England and can be visited any time! many thanks to Mike Chislett and the team who fundraised and arranged this permanent home among the trees for this lovely piece of community art. The Ark School have…

After a frantic few days in the workshop, I was able to deliver the finished sculpture to South West Metal Finishing for zinc plating today.  It just fits in their tanks and will get an extra thick plating.  It was a real challenge to get all the birds happily in place on the forged arms…

I am home and all my kit has arrived safely back in the forge, I have my lovely painted ‘Melissa’s Forge sign on the wall at the back of the workshop to remind me of my time at Ark School. I have great memories of my time in Germany and loved the last day when…

This is the last forging day on the project, the last day for anyone who hasn’t had a go at making a feather in copper, wire bird or forged feather to try their hand. I had four members of staff come and forge feathers for the bird designed by Toby, this will be just small…

Today I had lovely Year 2 to work with, the last class to spend their day with me.  They started off watching the demonstration and asked really great questions and stayed fully attentive for the whole demo which I was really impressed about.  With so many questions I had gone over my allotted time! We…

Today’s making time was kindly given by Head Teacher of Ark School Mr Chislett to the local German School from Hardt.  They came with 6 pupils and two teachers and one older pupil to document their day!  I love this kind of cross school/age group involvement in a community school project. Each pupil spoke a…

What a fantastic day we have had at Ark School!  The sun shone all day, even hot enough to warm the metal and tools without using the forge!  I was working with teacher Mrs Rickards and her Year 3 class today and brilliantly the class decided to have their whole day outside in the tented…

For me not being used to military life it was slightly daunting to come and stay at JHQ for a two week duration while working at ARK School. I am so used to my freedom and autonomy as an artist, military life is almost the exact opposite I imagine. I have been allocated a room…

The end of the week was really hot and sunny on the playground, working with year 4.  We managed to get some birds completed today so are only a little behind schedule. Year four had some pupils with real strength and accuracy which enabled them to push on with the work.  The bird we made…