Welcome to episode #102 and I have David Robertson with us today, he’s a professional artist blacksmith from Ontario Canada, in fact, he’s been in business for 30 years as of this year, congratulations David! We talk about how he kept busy when starting out as a full-time blacksmith and his latest Art History in Iron course he taught at the Halliburton School of Art and Design.

 

What We Talked About

• He opened his blacksmith business in 1987, so this year, 2017, will be its 30th he went full time with the business in 1993.
• While David was going to university in Canada for geological engineering he had a part-time job at a blacksmith shop. When David graduated, there were not any jobs in geological engineering so he decided to open his blacksmith business full time.
• When he started his full-time business, he chose to make a line of wholesale products; hooks, candle holders, fireplace sets, etc. and sell them at wholesale shows to retailers. He said that was nice because the retailers are more educated about handmade items and they paid on time.
• David explains how he comes up with his wholesale pricing.
• He also says that making products for wholesaling makes you very efficient with your time and your forge work.
• David eventually moved from wholesaling his product line to 2D and 3D sculptures. Mostly organic themes.
• There is a free membership offered on David’s website that has numerous blog articles about blacksmith techniques. He has just over 5000 members in his online community.
• David was recently an instructor at the Haliburton School of Art and Design in Canada, he taught an art history class on ironwork from 3500 BC to current day.
• While researching the different art periods in metal, David learned a lot. He started with the Celtic period, then Viking, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, then jumped into Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
• David teaches 3-day weekend classes out of his shop every other weekend and the classes are booked for the next 7 months. To see his class schedule, go to his website.

Guest Links

• David Robertson’s Website - http://www.artistblacksmith.com/
• Blue Moon Press for books on metalworking - http://bluemoonpress.org

A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor - www.SBAConference.com

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