Metal
My experience with metalwork follows a winding and non-traditional path. I was introduced by my grandfather when I was a kid — we spent lots of time in the garage fixing whatever we could get our hands on. From there, I found Iron casting, blacksmithing, and fabrication and haven’t been able to put it down since. More recently, I have been spending most of my time exploring forging.
Photo by Daniele Frazier
TOOLMAKING
My toolmaking practice started while I was a Core Fellow at the Penland School of Craft. Because use and function are so defined, this practice allows me to dive deeply into form which I can explore/experiment with and refine through repetition. Many of these tools are extensions of my hands directly effecting the work I make day in and day out.
Baby Anvil
2lb, Hardened 4140 tool steel
Forged during Winter Residency at the Penland School of Crafts in 2025
Long Arm Compass
Mild Steel and Bronze
Forged during Winter Residency at the Penland School of Crafts in 2026 for my friend Y-Sam
This tool is somewhere between a 360° protractor, a pencil compass, and a circular mat cutter. The 24” Arm accepts a wide range of drawing and/or cutting tools allowing the operator to draw or cut arc angles in the round from 4” to 48” around the center point. The base plate has hand stamped degree gradations for greater “precision”.
Garden Trowels
Mild Steel
Gifts for my friend Mia Donalson and my Dad
For all my gardeners near and far: I hope this growing season is fruitful!! Good Luck!
Top Tools
Tool Steel
Forged under the mentorship and guidance of Anna Koplik during spring concentration at the Penland School of Crafts in 2024
Tongs
Mild Steel
Made under the mentorship and of Anna Koplik during Spring Concentration at the Penland School of Crafts in 2024 and beyond.
Finding ways to hold hot metal can be difficult, so whenever necessary, I make a point to stop and make a new set of tongs for safer forging.
Power Hammer Tooling
Case Hardened Mild Steel
Made under the guidance and instruction of Pat Quinn the executive director at the Center for Metal Arts. These top and bottom tools make up an essential toolkit, designed by Pat, for forging complex shapes under a power hammer.
Raising Hammers
Hardened Tool Steel
Made in collaboration with Adam Whitney, a master of metal and its movement. Adam approached me before teaching spring concentration at the Penland School of Crafts in 2025 to make a run of raising hammers specifically tuned to his practice and teaching style. With his specifications, I made a run of 15 hammers for him and his students all with slight variations in weight for different scenarios and projects.
Photos taken by Adam Whitney
Forging Hammers
Hardened Tool Steel
Made under the mentorship of Anna Koplik and Sean Fitzsimmons
I was taught to forge hammers in the Swedish style, characterized by drawn out cheeks increasing surface area where the handle meets the head and swooping transitions between a flat front face and a rounded cross-peen on the back. Within this style there is a lot of latitude — different weights; face shapes; peen sizes, shapes and orientations; and the list goes on. These hammers serve me very well for almost all of the hand forging I do, but who can have enough hammers right?
Hardy Tools
Tool Steel
These tools were forged to fit a 200lb Hay Budden Anvil with a 1 1/8” Hardy hole
Anvil Stand
Pine and Fabricated Mild Steel
Made from a log that came down during hurricane Helene not far from my house for a 1914 200lb Hay Budden Anvil
Chasing and REpoussè Tools
Hardened W1 Tool Steel, Fabricated Brass Cup
Made under the guidance of Adam Whitney during Spring Concentration 2025 at the Penland School of Craft.
Splitting Maul
Hardened 4340 Tool Steel, 7lb
Originally intended for starting splits and driving wedges for green woodworking, but its great for firewood as well!
Froe
Tool Steel, 13” Blade
Forged for green woodworking
Splitting Wedges
Tool Steel, 13” Blade
Forged for green woodworking
Functional
My functional work serves a wide variety of purposes, in and around the home.
Torsion Chair
Rusted Steel and Cordage, 2022
A Spanish Windlass is a device for tightening or increasing potential energy within a closed system of rope. This chair uses this concept to explore the idea of torsion as it relates to seating by applying multiple instances of twisting force with lever arms.
206 Hooks
Forged Steel Hot Coated with Beeswax, 2026
Permanently installed outside each room at the Core House at the Penland School of Craft. At the beginning of each year I lived there, I forged a hook for outside of my room. At the end of my time there, I made one for the rest out of important forgings and shapes from my time as a core fellow.
Sitting Place Bench
Reclaimed Oak and Forged Steel, 2019
Knot Spoons
Mild Steel hot-coated with beeswax, 2026
Single overhand, Double overhand on a bight, Bowline, Figure 8,
Figure 8 on a bight — ongoing
Available for Purchase by request, email me!
Pizza Box Stool
Mild Steel hot-coated with beeswax, 2024
18” tall, designed to breakdown and fit in a standard 16” pizza box
Shelves for the things in my Pockets
“weathered” mild steel sheet, 2025
3 iterations for storing my every day carry — made under the mentorship of Hoss Haley
Forged Taper Candles
3-4hr burn Beeswax tapers, 2025-2026
Hand-Cast from Steel Forgings with Local WNC Beeswax
Available for Purchase through the Penland Gallery both online or in person
Walkn’ Around Candle Holders
Forged Steel hot-coated with Beeswax, 2025-2026
many iterations of chamberstick style candle holders - some are fabricated, most are one-piece forged
Available for purchase through the Penland Gallery both in-person or online
I-Beam Bookshelf
Painted Steel and Charred Pine
This piece was inspired by the idea of changing the visual quality of a line, through the inherent strength of steel and the fluidity of welding and fabricating metal structures. Through a study of process surrounding this idea, I worked out a method for for creating this I-beam-esque line quality in steel.
BBQ Forks
Forged steel, Hot-coated with beeswax, 2024
Made under the mentorship of Anna Koplik at the Penland School of Craft
Road Salt Cellars
Ceramic Jars and steel shovels, 2026
Made in Collaboration with Sam Dodie Block — inspired by the road salt we frequently encountered during our time as Core fellows at the Penland School of Craft.
Sculptural
Metal is my most familiar medium — which opens space to break the rules and tailor my working methods whenever the need arises
Wingnut
Forged steel, hot-coated with beeswax, 2024
Bespoke Hardware
Venison
Patinated Cast Iron and Forged Rebar, 2019
This piece was made using the lost wax casting method at the annual Bliss studio and gallery iron pour in Monument, Colorado. The antlers started as a straight billets of rebar forged at one end. A mold was then made of the skull with the billets sticking out of the wax and the rebar was cast into the cast iron. After the metal cooled, the rebar was bent to shape and welded to give a more realistic texture. The “leather” panels on the front are patina’d cast iron with concrete nails stuck into the wax positive before molding. The mounting plate was fabricated out of steel. This piece won “3D Best in Show” at the 57th Annual Young People Art Exhibition as well as a Gold Metal in sculpture at the “2019 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards”
Steelhead
Forged and Fabricated Steel, 2019
Made at the end of an internship with Jodie Bliss at Bliss Studio Custom Metalwork in Monument, CO
Raisings
Silver, Bronze, Copper, Brass, 2025
Made under the guidance of Adam Whitney
Photos taken by Adam Whitney
Penland Tree Chair
Inflated Steel and Downed Pine, 2025
Carved into a tree that was knocked over during Hurricane Helen in 2024
Equal Measure Forgings
Forged Steel Maquettes, ongoing
I’ve been contemplating mass and movement more physically with these pieces, subdividing it through forging, reorienting it molecularly, and then juxtaposing different elements to see how the masses interact. Typically I use these techniques to create objects that have a very directed use and functionality, but these forgings are more about iterating within a system and to see how they are perceived in space, to find what is visually interesting, and why.
These photos were taken in the Rabbit Hop gallery in Bakersville, NC — to better understand these hand sized forgings at large scale
Direct Burn Out Slingshots
Bronze, 2022
Drawings
Drawing very closely accompanies my metalworking practice. I use mechanical drafting in conjunction with volumetric geometry to understand how much material are in the shapes I am forging.
