The Southern Highland Craft Guild opens its fourth and final exhibition for 2018 with Forging Ahead: A Blacksmith Invitational in the Folk Art Center's main gallery upstairs. It features 36 objects from makers of the Western North Carolina chapter of Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. Works range from functional to decorative emphasizing the discipline of finesse with fire of a forge. On November 3, an opening reception will be held in the main gallery from 3 to 5 p.m. for the exhibitors and public.
Steve Mann
Many modern blacksmiths still work with the old-fashioned tools and techniques handed down through the centuries. However, new technology and new sophisticated equipment have emerged to help lessen the work load of the contemporary blacksmith.
Southern Highland Craft Guild member Susan Hutchinson, also a member of ABANA, gave curator Nikki Josheff and photographer Steve Mann a demonstration shaping steel using the traditional blacksmith tools, hammer and anvil, and then on a modern electric power hammer. "She has a power hammer that allows for much more force than that of a human." Forging Ahead captures the arduous nature of blacksmith, even to the smallest details, as can be seen in Robert Timberlake's thimble.
Early blacksmiths were essential to the survival of any community. They were the most important
Steve Mann
craftsmen on the first ships from Europe that colonized the Americas. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, they created all iron and steel tools. Because of the high cost to create such tools repairing a tool was preferable to having a new tool made.
This exhibit is located on the second floor of the Folk Art Center in the main gallery through the end of January. All products are available for purchase, online and in the gallery.
The center is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway in East Asheville.
The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation.