About me
A bit of history
For a long time we've had the dream of building an artist community with facilities to support theater, dance, music and the visual arts, in particular the 'fire arts': Blacksmithing, Ceramics, and Glassblowing for example.
The search for such a place in the Boston area proved frustrating and expensive and the idea was shelved.
In the Spring of '06 Mike approached Metalwerx and asked about doing a blacksmithing demonstration or class in their facility. They politely declined the opportunity on account of their percieved ludicrousness of such an idea, but suggested that the light industrial space that was for lease right next door might be an ideal location for such an activity.
We leased the space.
We officially opened Prospect Hill Forge on May 1, 2007 (after about a year of learning to deal with state and local bureaucracy and regulation). Our goal was to create a place where people could learn and practice blacksmithing. We have four 'work stations'; each has a coal forge, a bench, a blacksmith's vise, a machinist's vise, a collection of hammers, punches, chisels, measuring tools... just about everything that's needed. Each forge is a little different in construction. Some have electric blowers, some have hand-powered blowers, some are 'official' old-style made-for-the-purpose forges, others were hand-made right here in the smithy.
Philosophy
We feel that it's important that our students understand that there is no one way to pursue this craft and there is no one perfect set of tools that will handle all jobs. A forge can be anything from a couple of holes in the ground and a shingle to a carefully fitted induction coil, or anything in between.
Photo Credit: Babs Daniels
