Chris The Smith

Media: Metalwork

Exhibition and News

This year Chris will be exhibiting along side The Cotswold Craftsmen at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and again at the Malvern Autumn Show. He’ll also be joining them again to take part in his first exhibition in 10 years, a 3 week long exhibition at Nature in Art near Gloucester.

He also hopes to return to Art in the Park in Leamington where he has exhibited for the past 5 years.

Biography

Chris has been swinging hammers and playing with fire for the past 17 years.

His love for designing and making began at an early age playing with Lego, ever since then he’s jumped at the chance to play with new materials and try new techniques.
Going through school he worked with wood, plastics, clay and sheet metal but nothing really grabbed him until his parents bought him an experience weekend with a Blacksmith for his 17th birthday.

There was something about forging hot steel that he instantly fell in love with. Using fire as a creative tool rather than destructive force and seeing how the application of extreme heat turns steel into a wonderfully malleable material, allowing him to create fluid and elegant forms from a heavy material which is usually literally ‘hard as nails’.

Chris spent 3 years at Hereford College of Arts earning a BA in Artist Blacksmithing, in the spring of 2013 he started my business ‘Chris The Smith’ and he’s been going at it hammer and tongs ever since.

For the past 5 years he’s been working from a workshop in Earlswood, near Solihull. Here he uses traditional tools and techniques to create simple, yet elegant pieces which are both sculptural and practical. He produces a catalogue of items available direct to the public at events across the midlands and online through the The British Craft House.

Since September 2014 he’s been spending several days a week running experience sessions for anyone who’s always wanted to try their hand at the ancient art of blacksmithing.

In 2015 Chris was accepted into the Cotswold Craftsmen and he’s been exhibiting alongside them annually at large events such as the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and the Malvern Autumn Show.

 

Get in touch

Contact

Chris is usually at his workshop at the back of Earlswood Garden Centre, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 9am – 5pm but if you wish to visit him please contact Chris to make an appointment.

Can be contacted by phone, email or social media, all these contact details can be found on his website.

Website: https://www.christhesmith.co.uk