| Welcome to the Wareham Forge,
the work of Artisan Blacksmith Darrell Markewitz of Ontario Canada. Here
traditional hand forged techniques are blended with original custom designs
to create distinctive objects for garden or architecture. (What is called
'wrought iron work' by some.) A specialist in the Viking Age, creating reproductions
for Museums and re-enactors. Offering training courses various aspects of
Metalsmithing, plus instructional DVD's. |
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pull out guide |
A reconstruction of the Burgess Shale site during the Cambrian explosion. Painting by D. W. Miller Loading from a posting by John Brunno on the Climate Shifts blog. |
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Summer 2009 (this object available - $500) This was the first piece in the Hallucigenia series. Although not nearly as wierd as the real Hallucigenia (artist's interpretation to the right), it is strange enough. A set of overlapping plates make up the torso, ending in a long segmented tail. Are those legs or tenticles? Is this some proto crustation, ancestrial insect, or just what. This monster is about 90 cm / 35 inches long. It has been left un-treated so it will naturally weather with time. |
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Summer 2010 (this object available - $700) The inspiration for this piece started with seeing fish skeletons washed
up along a bearch. Imagine a series of curved ribs, linked along a spine.
But here the creature has not yet develped a boney spine like modern animals,
but instead has a cable like nerve cord, twined together to permit maximum
flexibility. The individual ribs are made from aggressively forged flat
bar. To finish, the metal is painted a dark chocolate brown. |
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forged mild steel bar and sheet Summer 2011 This piece was created specifically for the 'Joined by Joints' category at CanIRON 8. I decided work from the *concept* of a joint, rather than the *function* of a joint - in this case the 'loop and wedge' technique. I also wanted to aggressively forge each of the elements, so much so that the profile of the starting bars would be completely transformed. The individual shell pieces are the only element that use a completely modern tool - these were torch cut from plate then ground to smooth lines. The folding technique here uses rivets to secure the lines. The two shell pieces and the spine are also riveted together. The curved 'antenna' elements work as wedges to secure in place against the central hoop piece. 'Burgess Crab' has been finished with a satin varithane coating, to preserve the natural fire scale colours. 'Burgess Crab' is now in the collection of J. Koza Ttee, who decided to purchase the work on its very first public showing. |
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f orged mild steel with commercial glass, natural stone base Winter 2012 The starting point here was a set of small thimble sized glass holders
for long thin 1/4 inch diameter candles. Images to the right: |
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Summer 2012 (this object available - $500) The starting point here was actually a pail full of offcut pieces of
forged pipe, left over from work on the architectural project on the Reade-Maxwell
House. Returing to the various illustrations of the defining 'Hallucigenia'
organism, the sauceage shaped tubes were attached to short forged spikes
to form the legs. A body was formed by agressively forging a lenght of
channel, plus two pieces of angle. The short pinched pieces became the
ridges along the spine. |
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Winter 2013 (this object available - $300) During a workshop session with Kelly Probyn-Smith, I started playing
around with using various dies and surface texturing tools to alter the
surfaces of bars. One prototype that emerged from this suggested a line
of suckers down a long tenticle. I had a number of smoothly polished beach
stones I had picked up somewhere on my travels, intending to incorporate
these into forged pieces. |
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 Who is Darrell Markewitz? |
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