Ashen Carey
Elements In Iron brings honestly crafted products to people that have an appreciation for quality, durability and beauty.
All of my work comes out of a fire and is formed with hand and hammer over an anvil while the iron is over 2,000 degrees. A preference is always given to techniques and tools that artisan blacksmiths have employed for hundreds of years. When a piece leaves my shop it has been crafted to unite centuries of beauty and skill with todays sensibility.
My Begining
The road that has brought me to you started in 1996 when I began a two year apprenticeship at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village, outside of Detroit, Michigan. The shop did not use electricity. The coal fires were stoked by overhead bellows. We demonstrated for the public and worked on repair and restoration of forged ironwork for the museum.
My Journey
It was at this time that I learned of the centuries old tradition of blacksmithing, where after the completion of an apprenticeship the youth would then travel around the countryside, from shop to shop, learning where he could. This process would typically last for ten years or more. I saw the wisdom in this system. So began The Journey period of my education which lasted for eight years and took me from my native Michigan to California, then to Israel, Italy, the Czech Republic, and then to Pennsylvania. The impact of this time of study and experience is inseparable from my work today. It is not uncommon for me to be able to “read” one of my projects such as, “that leaf I learned in Israel, that scroll-end in Italy, that form in Prague.” In this way you are linked, through me, to my teachers and Masters, to their Masters, and on back for over a thousand years.
I would like to take this opportunity to give my utmost gratitude for those who have helped me along the way (especially Claudio Bottero of Italy and Uri Hofi of Israel). My journey would not have been possible without their guidance, instruction, patience, and generosity. I am forever in their debt.
I would also like to acknowledge the countless blacksmiths, known and unknown, that have passed this craft and trade down through the ages. Without the willingness to share, teach and encourage, this profession would have been lost to obscurity. I tip my hat to their knowledge, skill, determination, and the legacy of beautiful and functional ironwork. May their hammers rest forever well.
