In our backyard tipi-forge, Ali makes contemporary, yet traditional, hand-forged items. Blacksmithing is still new to her, and so far, she is mostly focusing on producing small to medium size items to develop her skills and just to hear the clang of the anvil.
Ali is a graduate of Fleming College's Artist Blacksmith Program (2015). Her interest in blacksmithing originated in wanting to fix things that she kept breaking on the farm. Halfway through the blacksmith program she realized what she really needed to learn was how to weld (welding is essentially 'gluing' metal together whereas blacksmithing is the shaping of metal). But she was bit by the hammer bug and now blacksmithing is her new obsession.
At first, she wanted to forge architectural elements to compliment her timber framing work but that interest has broadened to include day-to-day functional items such as door latches, kitchen tools, hooks and keychains. From a materials perspective, she is mostly interested in reclaiming and repurposing old iron implements and metal scraps and forging them into something new and beautiful. In the future, she hopes to make woodworking and gardening hand tools, furniture and art.
