Here’s a product that is not only beautiful, but also symbolizes a singular being’s perseverance in pursuit of his passion. Artist-blacksmith Timothy Dyck is a master in ancient art of, well, blacksmith. He specializes in turning discarded steels into beautiful art objects and the Blacksmith Bowls you see here are the results. The beauty in this decorative, sculptural bowls lie in the fact that they are made from materials found in places like abandoned mines found around the mountains . Here’s how these work of art are made straight from the man’s mouth:
“Each piece of my “Relevant” series is carefully compiled from selected old steel and joined together by seemingly rudimentary blacksmithing processes. The material is heated to a semi-molten state and fused together with hand hammer and anvil. Once the steel is flattened out, it is then shaped into a bowl while spinning at 150 rpm, much like a potter spins and shapes clay. The finished bowl shows where the material was joined together creating natural voids and tears that reflect the old history of each piece.”
And here’s a little backstory of how Tim became so passionate about the art of blacksmith:
“I became interested in blacksmithing when I was 13 years of age and quickly realized this is what I wanted to do for a career. With no money to buy my first forge, I scrounged up bits and pieces from old trucks and a couple parts from a local thrift stores to put together my first forge. With my forge up and running, I would convince my friends to walk along the railroad tracks looking for old railroad spikes that were left lying around. They would help me carry them home and I would reforge them into hooks and knives. At the time I didn’t realize that this would later become a large part of my artist make up – finding things that people have discarded and thrown away, then repurposing them into something useful and beautiful.”
Over the last ten years, Tim has been sticking to his passion and in the process, built a shop that boasts some hand selected blacksmithing tools. The Blacksmith Bowls, which are part of his Relevant series, were made exclusively from metal found discarded in old gold mines among the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia where he reside, as well as logging cable sourced from the coastal mountains and in some cases, from copper smelters.
If you appreciate Tim’s dedication for this quickly diminishing art and the resulting products, you can purchase them from his website. Prices start at $150 a pop and depending on which masterpiece you choose, it can run up to as much as a grand.
Images courtesy of Timothy Dyck.
Submitted via TIP US Page.
