What is it about wrought iron in particular

So, in order to understand my own rational for investigating wrought iron instead of, say, watchmaking, Guilloché, Japanese metalwork or any of the other fields I'm interested in, I have to unpack and examine what wrought iron means to me.

The first thing which comes to mind is a type of nostalgia for lack of a better term. These disciplines represent skills which have either fallen into disuse or have been replaced by machine lead manufacturing. The industrial revolution whilst vital in our progress as a species has left some very important values in it's wake. The equation of time equaling money has lead to people doing the absolute minimum to get the job done. With that rational, some bar stock welded into squares become our burglar bars and the beauty of a forged grill gets left out of the equation. Mass produced rings which have barely passed through skilled craftsman's hands are sold at more of a profit than individually crafted pieces of jewellery.

I am aware that our quality of life in general has improved since the industrial revolution, I know if cars were all hand made, very few people would be able to have them. What I am doing is romanticizing, ignore any bad and buff up the good. Sometimes you have to emphasize something, make it bigger and more clear in order to wake and awareness in the viewer. What I'm trying to do is give people a visual reminder that once we did not accept anything less than beautiful, even if the object was functional.

I've decided that I will couple each piece with a line or two of song lyrics or poetry, either engraved or etched into the piece or displayed along with the piece. Words are a powerful medium to invoke thoughts and feelings. They also lend clarity of intention, often it's the title of a piece which gives the biggest clue as to what the artist is getting at.

Helter Skelter

It's time to look into how blacksmiths get such repeatable results with their scrolls. As with much of their trade, it's a little by eye and a little with the help of a jig. The jig for making scrolls is a metal conical spiral, much like a helter skelter slide. This is so that the loops do not overlap as you turn them round the circles. They then tap them flat on the anvil. One of the problems with bending scrolls by hand is trying to fit the pliers in between the gaps of the loops without damaging the shape or the wire. I will be making miniature helter skelter style jigs in the coming week

Interestingly, when I found information about scroll jigs, there is much about the 'golden mean', what we call the Fibancci ratio nowadays. Here is a quote in laymans terms on how to use it to make an elegant scroll. Taken from a blacksmithing forum here


"First, you have to understand the Fibonacci sequence. In the "golden ratio" the simplest way to envision it is a line divided in two, but instead of a ratio of 1:2, it's more like 1:craziness. So 1/2 is 1 divided equally into two parts, where as the Fibonacci sequence is exactly 1+root 5 divided by 2 which equals 1.6180339887. But, you might ask, how does that make a scroll? Simply. The mathematics of the golden ratio and of the Fibonacci sequence are intimately interconnected. The sequence after all the maths is as follows: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34...etc. So to find the golden spiral we do the simplest maths possible, use the first 6 numbers to draw a rectangle, and from that rectangle work down the sequence to form all squares to fill up the rectangle, and from there, draw arcs from the corners of each square till they touch and make a spiral."

This is not, of course, the only good spiral shape, some are tighter or looser depending on the desired look but it's a good place to start. 

Vegetal Scrolls

A reminder that vegetal scrolls are, well, vegetal

Hey, I made stuff

It seems logical to me to start with replicating various elements from wrought iron work, that way I can tell what translates well and design with these in mind. Decorative ironwork design seems to be based on repeating elements to build up a pleasing pattern.

One of the basic forms is the twisted square bar, because iron will only twist where it is heated, it is possible to introduce two opposing twists. Silver is inherently soft compared to iron but it may not move in the same way. The test is to see if I can use heat to twist one half clockwise and the other anticlockwise.

Starting with twisting without heat, you can see the progression in the photos, from mildly twisted, to very twisted to see how far I could push it and then to heating and twisting each half individualy. The mechanics are interesting, I have to twist and pull apart slightly to keep it straight, also, when I put the opposite twist in, the first unwinds a little. In the end I was able to get a repeatable pattern which is would rate as a success. I also really enjoy rhe oxides formed when heated as they indicate the process, in order to keep that I'll have to use cold joining techniques, so perhaps I'll use it in some pieces ajd not others.

I have included a picture of wrought iron twisted bars to show the types used. 

I will use this element I'm a ring to begin with (see photo of drawing)

My motivations

Having spent years at the bench, honing technique and discipline, I find that, although I am doing what I love, there is something missing. Some indefinable notion that this is not all it could be.

The position of the bench jeweler is a unique one, we interpret the designs given by the customers to the salespeople. The salespeople may or may not have interpreted the customer's wishes correctly. Regardless of that interaction, our job is to produce a fine piece of jewellery that fits the description given. Beyond advising on design elements that simply will not work, we have no access to the customer and often in larger companies, we have no direct contact with the salespeople either.

So, in order to produce pieces that are well made but may not fit into my own aesthetic appreciation, I had become 'design neutral' This is not an evil in itself as it allowed me to be able to focus on the technical aspects of making, thereby improving my skill set whilst getting paid to boot. Much like practising on someone else's time.

Too many years of this, however, and I feel as if I have lost my aesthetic sensibilities, nothing engages my designing mind on a daily basis. I'm not in a position to give an opinion because I've stopped listening to myself. I've spent so long a time interpreting other people's desires, wishes and stories that I've forgotten that I have a story which people may find engaging.

This period of study is a sort of reawakening of my critical mind. A chance to give my interpretation of the world around us and thanks to the years sitting at the bench, I have the technical prowess to be able to give shape to my thoughts.

As a starting point I have chosen to study decorative wrought ironwork as it has always captured my imagination and awe. Part of the reason for becoming a goldsmith was that there were no courses in ironwork available to me and the two crafts are closely linked in technique and antiquity.