Northwest Blacksmith Association

Ypres Poppies

The NWBA Mentoring Center event for January 23, 2016 is making poppies for an International Blacksmithing event project.

Jim von Mosch will be leading a demo/open forge making the poppies. He will have about 100 blanks for people to use to make the poppies, and a couple of hardy tools.
This is for anyone, beginners included. If you have good cross-peen hammers everyone should bring one.

Watch some videos about how to make the poppies:

How to make poppies video with power hammer:

Forging the Poppy Petals by Hand:

Download the pdf for the Poppy profile, (the blank to be used making the poppies)

Ypres 2016 – Poppy Cenotaph, Ypres, Belgium

Poppyexcerpt from website http://www.ypres2016.com/:

In September 2016, a new World War 1 Cenotaph will be created at the Grote Markt, in front of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium. The Cenotaph will be located adjacant to the German War Cemetery at Langemark Poelkapelle.

The Cenotaph will commemorate everyone involved in the conflict, both military and civilian on all sides – all those who died, all those wounded, all those displaced – and of equal importance, their families and their communities. In the War of 1914 -1918 blacksmiths and farriers were indispensable in sustaining the war effort on all sides. In September 2016, hundreds of blacksmiths from around the world will come together in Ypres to remember all those affected by the war and to create in one week, a Cenotaph based on the internationally recognised icon, the Flanders Field Poppy. This will make a unique contribution to the many commemorative sites and structures on the Western Front, serving to commemorate all involved in and affected by the conflict.