Inspiring Treff last Monday 20th of September

John Dittmeier, member of the Artist-Blacksmith's Association of North America and a member of the board did his presentation about the history of modern blacksmithing from an American perspective. The presentation is based on a wall mural produced by ABANA.

The link to the wall mural:
https://abana.org/wall-mural-timeline-of-the-blacksmithing-revival/

Mr. Dittmeier has studied various developments in architecture and art over time and placed the developments of forging in this retrospective.

The reason for all this is the main question he asked himself:
Will blacksmithing fall again?

This question is difficult to answer, but a look back in time shows that history repeats itself and the craft follows the pendulum swing of time.

After the lecture, there were interesting questions that led to a number of brief conclusions like:

• The market for craft ironwork in the United States of America is thin;
• The market for restaurating ironwork in the US is also thin;
• There is a lot of interest in architectural metalwork at the moment;
• Blacksmiths need a business mind to be successful;
• The volume of work to be generated has its limitations because most blacksmiths want to be active in sole proprietorships;
• Unfortunately, America does not have any training courses for blacksmiths, so ABANA fills this gap with its own curriculum. Very interesting to make knowledge of.

There were 14 participants resulting in an interesting round of questions and discussion.

The next Treff will be held on 11.10.2021 by Rashelle Hams also from the USA. Everyone is welcome. Looking forward to a wonderful evening together!