Your Guide 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. A specialist in the Viking Age, creating reproductions for Museums and re-enactors. Offering training courses various aspects of Metalsmithing, plus instructional DVD's.


2010 Event Schedule

...at these GALLERIES

PORTFOLIO

Gallery of Past Work

Garden Art

On Custom Design

Patron Sought!

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE

Bladesmithing

DVD / CD-ROM / VHS

Viking Game

Re-enactors Supplies

TRAINING

Blacksmithing Courses

Instructional AV

School Programs

MUSEUM RELATED

Museum Services

Demonstrations

The Norse Encampment

Experimental Iron Smelting

FULL SITE INDEX
the Wareham Forge - Artisan Blacksmith

Darrell Markewitz is the hand that guides the hammer. He has been working with forged steel, and producing historic reproductions, since the late 1970's. Four years at Ontario College of Art has led to a blending of modern design concepts with a traditional craft. Five years at Black Creek Pioneer Village, three as primary blacksmith, has yielded a deep understanding of historic styles and techniques from the Settlement era.
An area of personal interest and study has been the Early Mediaeval period, especially the Viking Age, resulting in work that truly spans the ages. Over the years he has visited most of the major museums and living history sites in Central and Eastern Canada, the Northeastern United Sates, and several in England and Ireland. Since 1993 he has designed and produced the 'Norse Encampment' series of programs, including the living history presentation at the L' Anse aux Meadows NHSC in Newfoundland for Parks Canada. This work has included his involvement as a consultant for the major exhibits 'Vikings - North Atlantic Saga' (Smithsonian) and 'FULL CIRCLE - First Contact' (Newfoundland Museum. A related museum project was the creation of the 1000 square foot exhibit 'World of the Norse' for the Cranbrook Institute of Science.
View Darrell's CV as prepared for a 2008 grant application (bias towards Experimental Iron Smelting).

There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man's lawful prey.
ATTRIBUTION: John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

The Wareham Forge is located in rural Ontario, half way between Orangeville and Owen Sound (near Flesherton). It combines the facilities of a traditional, coal fired forge, modern welding and machine tools, and a fine metals studio equipped for casting and sheet forming. The shop has been in full operation since 1991, providing services for museums, retail shops, historic re-enactors and original artistic forgings for private commissions.

" I have developed a strong personal style, clearly visible through a body of past work. Like Art Nouveau, it is strongly influenced by historic European artifacts, and features aggressively forged elements combined into flowing lines and often asymmetrical overall designs. I had forged a style - but one without a name. The conceptual designs of Allen Lee and Richard Howe seen in Jackson's Lord of the Rings had also been based on those same Norse, Saxon and Celtic objects I knew so well. In the material culture created for the Elves of Rivendale especially, I saw the same blend of the Norse Urnes style blended through Art Nouveau lines which marked by own (long developed!) style. I have come to use the term 'Rivendale ' to describe my distinctive metalwork style."


The Wareham Forge
Darrell Markewitz
The Hamlet of Wareham,
R.R. #2 Proton Station, Ontario
CANADA - N0C 1L0
(519) 923-9219       info@warehamforge.ca
Pioneer Smith
Vinland

All text and photographs © 1998 - 2010, Darrell Markewitz, the Wareham Forge.
Photograph 'Blacksmith at Owen Sound Museum' from the Owen Sound Sun Times.