CanIRON VII - The Canadian Blacksmiths Association
Blacksmithing tutor, Adrian Legge was invited to demonstrate his considerable skills at 'CanIRON VII', an annual conference for the Canadian Blacksmiths Association. This year's event was held at Ness Creek in the beautiful Boreal Forest of North-Central Saskatchewan.
It was decided to mark the event by constructing an iron obelisk standing 20 feet tall, with 20 panels, and asking each of the demonstrators to contribute to one of the panels. The obelisk is to be a permanent fixture at the site and will be seen by millions of people each year. The theme for the panels was 'Journeys' and each contributor was allowed to interpret this in any way that they wished. Adrian chose to produce an abstract representation of a salmon as he felt that this not only linked the idea of a journey over distance but also of the journey through life.
The following week saw the first Blacksmithing course held at Ness Creak where 12 students of varying abilities and experience were given the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills. This proved to be extremely popular with the local media, with TV and radio stations giving significant coverage via interviews and reports thus demonstrating the level of interest in arts and crafts in general and Blacksmithing in particular. It is hoped that this programme will be continued at Ness Creek and further developed into a full time facility. At the same time there was a Bluegrass music festival, therefore, it was rumoured, the Blacksmiths, while working, provided the accompanying ‘percussion section’– I think not!
To find out more about this event and see more photographs, you can visit the website at www.caniron.ca
