Role: Artist and blacksmith tutor
Company: Hot Milk Forge Black/Bladesmith School
Track Record: Exploring a career in the creative sector led to Eamonn Higgins discovering a passion for blacksmithing.
HOW I BECAME A BLACKSMITH AND SCULPTOR
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I have been a professional artist/sculptor since 2003 when I graduated from the University of Lincoln. My practice specialises in contemporary sculptural blacksmithing; small to large commercial gallery based sculpture being my bread and butter. Passing on the skills of blacksmithing has always been a core element of my career; Hot Milk Forge is the black/bladesmithing school I built at my home in the Glens of Antrim.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Art and P.E. Put simply they were just more fun than anything else. If I could’ve found a way to paint while playing football that would’ve been ideal.
Did you go on to further/ higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I gained a BA Hons in Contemporary Crafts at the University of Lincoln.
How did you get into your area of work?
I fell into it really. I got commissioned to design a large public art piece for the ‘Gateway’ to the City of Lincoln and I found the only person who could make my design was a blacksmith, who ironically ran a blacksmith school. I ended up basing myself at his school for the next three years or so making my sculpture, learning the skills of a blacksmith and teaching the odd class in blacksmithing.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
Blacksmithing? No to be honest like most people of my generation I had no real idea what it was growing up, the village blacksmith was from times of yore in my eyes, I was very wrong. I fancied myself as a professional sportsman but chocolate bones and lack of true aptitude stopped that idea. As I went into further education I knew I wanted to create/sculpt/make with my hands, I guess blacksmithing found me.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
There are many specialisms within blacksmithing and not all of them need a formal education, but my sculpture practice was helped by it, as it focused my creative identity. Blacksmithing is next to impossible to be successfully self-taught at and being based at a blacksmithing school for so long helped me. It’s easy as a craftsman to neglect the business and networking side of your practice but my time on Craft NI’s Making It business development programme created a strong core I still lean on today.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
Bluffers won’t last long in blacksmithing, if you don’t possess the technical skills you can’t do the job. There is a City and Guild qualification, the traditional blacksmith guild journeyman-master direction and you may be lucky and get an apprenticeship with another blacksmith. But if you want to work for yourself learning the skills to run any modern business like accounts etc. should not be ignored.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Being personable and having a good sense of fun helps when I’m teaching my classes at Hot Milk Forge. An ability to problem solve quickly is important as when teaching you are, in a way creating, each student’s piece in your mind and being able to articulate that vision to them in an easy accessible way is a real skill.
In my sculpture practice being able to maintain working relationships with my agents and galleries is priceless, being approachable and flexible helps with this.
What does a typical day entail?
Get up, reluctantly. Help get the wee man ready for his day as well as my own. If there’s no computer or paperwork to do, I’ll hit the forge/studio and try to get a good solid few hours in sculpting or painting before I have to prep for my evening class at Hot Milk Forge. Teach the evening class where I could have complete beginners or regulars who have been coming for a number of years, all having their own projects that the need help with. Finally I’ll unwind in front of the telly for an hour before going to bed…gladly.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
Time management is challenging, the classes have a set block of time that are relatively easy to manage.
However trying to create sculpture and art around the boring essential bits like website/computer demands or social networking and answering emails is hard.
The best bits are meeting new interesting people and the huge sense of satisfaction of delivering new work to clients and agents.
Why is what you do important?
Will the world as we know it come to end if we don’t know the skills of black/bladesmith?
Well no, but if it does come to an end you’ll wish you had the skills of a blacksmith to survive! Luckily I’m running a Crafts for the Apocalypse week at Hot Milk Forge as part of Craft NI’s August Craft Month so people can learn the skills of bladesmithing and tool making.
In a less tongue in cheek way, we as a world are becoming illiterate with our hands, so many people have a primal urge to create and make. That’s very hard to achieve by staring at a computer screen, but it’s easy to imagine doing with a forge, hammer and anvil.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Think long and hard whether you want to potentially ruin that pastime which gives you so much joy, as you still need that down time in life. If this is your new direction try not to have too many irons in the fire at once and pick a specialism that you excel at.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
Probably a teacher or in sales and marketing, I reckon I may have kissed the Blarney stone in a past life. It’s hard to imagine not being an artist of some form it’s all I’ve known since I left formal education.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
Extreme highs and lows are day to day reality of a creative business, see them for what they are not what your fears and dreams perceive them to be.
Describe your ideal day off.
Swinging a golf club in the morning instead of a hammer, then taking the wee man (my 6 month old son Oliver) swimming with his mum. Then feet up with a glass of vino in front of the fire watching the latest Game of Thrones’ episode.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Learn the art of the job application. You may be the most qualified person for the job but if you can’t articulate that via a job application you’re in for a very long search. Be open minded perhaps self-employment is the way to go for you.