Melissa Cole

Craft

Melissa uses her traditional blacksmith hammer and anvil in a very un-traditional way, forging metal artworks that move and flow much like the fire it is born from.

Smoke from the metal chimney was spiraling upwards as we approached Melissa Cole’s forge in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. Passing through the white wooden doors we could see the flames rising as Melissa was busy working some steel on the anvil. Her space, formerly a pig shed is in a long brick building. The majority of tools are set around the forge, the heart of any blacksmiths dwelling. As work spaces go this has to be as traditional as they come with the aged anvil sitting on a weathered tree stump. Both the anvil and the stump are covered in layers of ingrained soot through years of use. Just like the anvil and stump the majority of tools are also made with wood and metal and hang within reach of the forge ready to be used at any moment. Melissa pointed out some wrought iron she had salvaged from a local church saying, “that would have been forged in the 17C using the same techniques as I do now and I can use that metal to create something new. Repeating this old process is a lovely experience.”