Forged Steel Botanicals

From his earliest days as a blacksmith, Kyle has enjoyed forging flowers, leaves, and other botanical structures. It’s a unique and satisfying challenge to transform hard, flat steel into the fluid shapes of plants. Here are a couple recent projects that put those skills to use.

First up is a small tabletop bamboo sculpture. This piece stands about 12” tall and was included in our exhibit as guest artists of the month at Crozet Artisan Depot a few years ago.

Next is a set of shelf brackets designed around a grapevine and leaf motif. A winery near Vancouver, British Columbia reached out to us about creating these custom brackets for their new tasting room.

You can see other examples of Kyle’s botanical forging in other blog posts, including a double-leaf tree gate, a custom mantle mirror, and an exterior cat tail sculpture.

Our trophy collection

They're not trophies we've won. These are trophies we've made. Handmade trophies are a great change of pace from the standard metal cup or wooden plaque. And we have to say, from the maker perspective, they're a unique and fun design challenge.

For the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce 2013 Impact Awards. The shape of this forged steel trophy comes from the logo of i.e.*, the GRCC's innovation initiative.

For the inaugural Richmond Creativity Awards in 2014. This mixed media mosaic and forged steel trophy mimics the event logo and the idea of creativity bursting forth.

For the GRCC's 2014 Impact Awards. Like the 2013 version, this one is inspired by the i.e.* initiative logo, but we've added color this time around.

Round-up of recent projects

Take a little spin through our studios and see what we've been up to lately:

  • Custom hand-forged mosaic drawer pulls

  • Hand-forged trophy for the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce Impact Awards. This trophy was presented to Sky Foundry for the Innovation Award.

  • Custom forged, folded bowl made from reclaimed electrical conduit.

  • Ceramic, glass, and collected object mosaics awaiting grout. The longer pieces will be coat racks when they are complete.