I began blacksmithing about fifteen years ago after working for many years in wood, designing and creating massive furniture with split rail fence turned on a large lathe. I collaborated with a decorative smith in one of these projects and was immediately drawn to decorative iron work. My mentors recognized in me an innate ability to see and work in iron and were quite encouraging. After restoring The Old Mill in Greenville, I built and opened Laurel Creek Forge and formed a partnership.
This endeavor brought about a working relationship with the Kinsman Company (an international business working with the nursery industry). We designed and produced a line of plant hangers with a signature leaf. These were sold in large quantities and were distributed internationally. At the same time my colleague and I, and up to 5 additional smiths, produced miles of railing, gates, fireplace tools and some freeform sculpture. Our shop became well know and was featured in the Golden Seal magazine and the Wild Wonderful West Virginia magazine.
By invitation we showed our work at the Annual National Nursery Association show in Washington DC. We won a prestigious contract to produce a replica gate for the State of W.Va. at West Virginia University. This gate took most of a year to produce and won an Architectural Digest Honorable Mention. We were invited to exhibit at the West Virginia Department of Culture and History’s Vandalia Gathering in Charleston and here received much favorable comment and many new orders for our architectural work. I took part in the initial Tamarack meeting as part of the Development Committee, and was juried in with the first group of participating artists. We put on a series of art and craft festivals at the Old Mill and Laurel Creek Forge, attended by large crowds for a number of years. On at least two occasions, Channel 6 news covered these festivals and other events at the forge. I attended an international workshop at the Pennland School with my mentor Jeff Fetty, whose work is well known throughout the country. At this conference I had the opportunity of working with Albert Pailey and David Peterson of Wales - two of the worlds most recognized smiths. They were very complimentary about my designs and offered much advice and help. My work was featured at the Pendragon Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland and collectors from the Greenbrier and elsewhere visited and purchased at the LCF gallery. I also produced a prop for the movie Matewan.
My current work is being shown at the Cooper Gallery in Lewisburg, W.V.