Our first course welcomed a father and son to the forge – both had received gift vouchers to take part.

After the regulatory H & S and risk assessment talk, it was straight onto making toasting forks.  This activity took us up to lunchtime and a case of mistaken sandwiches (you had to be there).  For the afternoon’s activity we decided they would work on a joint project for their home, a coat rail.  The finished projects looked great, we managed to tire out both attendees and it was a great buzz for me and I hope for them too.  I received this note from wife and mum the following day:

“Jo, they really enjoyed their day with you in the forge on Saturday. They were extremely pleased with their toasting forks which are now on my wall by our fire and the coat rail will be up in the hall soon. Thanks for putting up with them!”

Coat rail made by father & son

If you pop over to my facebook page (or see the bar over on the right) you can see a short video of the budding blacksmiths in action!

The first blacksmith course is due to take place this Saturday (7th Jan).  I have been speaking to the attendees as I intend that every course will be bespoke to each person and that people can make something that will be relevant and useful to them.  Also as part of this process I will need to manage expectations, we can’t quite manage a pair of driveway gates in our day-long session!

Anyway, if you were going to come along, what would you make?  Great to hear your ideas.

I will be posting on here after each course and sharing photos and experiences so perhaps we can provide some smiles and some inspiration along the way!

Happy 2012!