This week at IAStudios

Hello everyone,

The temperature has cooled down which means the forge has heated up this week! Last weekend Joe was at the Tolkien festival in Sarehole where he and some blacksmith friends hosted a successful stall packed with hand forged wares and the proud hosts of the mighty Dwarven Hammer Hold contest which saw well over 100 people test their mettle… against the metal. We were even briefly shown on ITV, oh the claim to fame! This busy stall has put a dent in our stock for future events this summer, so on top of our standing orders, courses that we are teaching and the necessary weekly paperwork, we are also replenishing our market/festival stock. We also have a couple of smiths renting spaces in our workshop this week to make their own stock for festival season so we have quite the motley crew in the forge this week.

In the forge this week: Dan is making more tongs to keep up with our standing orders, Joe and Elliot are making more stock for the summer season with Joe making hairpins and pendants and Elliot making Cat figures, bottle openers and keyrings. Come the weekend, Dan and Joe are having a stall at the Gwatkins cider festival, where customers will be able to have a go at blacksmithing and will be taught how to make their own little bottle opener, which then means they are suitably equipped to enjoy the rest of the festival. Elliot will be teaching a large 2 day Damascus knife course over the weekend so there should be some very pretty knives which may appear on the blog post next week!

As mentioned earlier we have a couple of smiths renting space in our workshop this week so that they have access to our facilities, if this is something that interests you, please do check our workshop rental rates. We have also fixed the shipping issues in our online shop, thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Cheers to a busy summer ahead!

~IAStudios

Dan making tongs with ‘Pam’ the power hammer.

Elliot teaching a Damascus knife course, working the billet with ‘Pam’.

The mighty Lucy, who managed to hold the hammer for 64 seconds! The top time out of the ladies, and humbling many a man.

Joe (Right) and friends at the end of the Tolkien festival in Sarehole