Dates and times: Saturdays from 11am to 3:30pm.
Venue: Moneypenny’s Blacksmith (View map)
Admission: £10.
Recommended age: 16+.
Moneypenny’s Blacksmith Workshop is a space for Artists who work in metal and host to a weekly ‘come and try’ blacksmith group. It is set in the beautiful and historic location of Moneypenny’s Lock, on the Newry Canal just outside Portadown.
The workshop was founded at Tannaghmore Animal Farm in 2008 as part of a rural arts progamme ‘Art in the Wetlands’. The aim was to preserve traditional skills and encourage art-making using those skills and since then the workshop has grown from strength to strength, relocating to a new home in 2014.
Moneypenny’s Blacksmith have a team of tutors, all qualified professional artist-blacksmiths, who are happy to pass on their skills. Eamonn Higgins, Steve Murphy and Aaron Leach are always on hand to offer advice or demonstrate smithy techniques.
Students can also learn from watching other more experienced group members, and many jobs require several pairs of hands working in unison. Working in a smith and striker team is an exciting, unforgettable learning experience for any novice smith!
MBW combines traditional forge and anvil based methods with modern techniques such as MiG welding and plasma cutting, using the best from both worlds to create unique, bespoke, hand-made objects. MBW supplies all the necessary safety gear, all they ask their students is to come along in old clothes and a sturdy pair of work boots.
Members come from a variety of backgrounds, from arts students to engineers. MBW has a couple of younger students using blacksmithing as part of their Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme. Other members have successfully presented their work at Higher Education interviews, or used their metalworking skills to find jobs in fabrication or as a farrier. However, MBW must warn you at this point, as it says on MBW t-shirts, they DON’T shoe horses!
For more information please email Jonny.Kerr@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk
Tel: 07778373472
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moneypennyblacksmithsworkshop/
