Join us for an amazing Slide Show and Presentation on Friday evening with presenter, Jim Garrett. Jim plans to show a few images of projects spanning a nearly 50-year professional career and focus on design and tooling development of selected projects.

Jim started pounding steel at age 5, straightening nails for his mom and dad, who were expanding the home that he grew up in. Intending to study graphic design at Syracuse University, he walked into the wrong classroom and met Lee DuSell, architectural and furniture designer; Jerry Malinowski, part of the original Mustang team at Ford; and Mike Jerry, who was fired up about hot iron and teaching blacksmithing. After graduating, Jim went to work in a seamless pipe mill near Pittsburgh. Nothing is more exciting for a young smith than being part of a team shoving a punch lengthwise down a hot billet to create a 40-foot-long, 14-inch diameter seamless pipe.

Jims been lucky enough to work with some really great teams creating metalwork for the homes of billionaires up and down the west coast and as far east as Connecticut. Projects that he has worked on have won nearly 100 AIA and AGC awards, and have been published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Fine Homebuilding, Fine Woodworking, and several others.

Jim is proud to have been a founding member of NWBA and to have had the opportunity to develop so many long-lasting friendships with so many great people passionate about hot metal.

Joining us as a featured Demonstrator on Saturday will be David Tuthill, from Fire Horse Forge in Seattle. David has been working with metals, beginning with jewelry, since the age of fifteen. He began forging as part of a sculpture course at Santa Barbara City College in 1988. He did not begin forging full-time until 1992 when he began to do privately commissioned work. Predominantly self-taught, he has been constantly challenging himself to further his skills by taking on tasks or designing jobs that force him to learn something new. He has been operating his business, FIRE HORSE FORGE, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle since 1994, where he produces architectural commissions, as well as furniture, sculpture, knifes, axes, and jewelry. David is highly recognized for his knowledge of crafting mono-steel and Damascus knives and tools. Workshops are also frequently offered at his forge in Ballard.

David’s years in the Northwest have been the most formative in his metalworking career. With his love for the outdoors, being surrounded by the vast and expansive nature of the region, as well as a rich industrial history, including timber, maritime trades, and railroads, he has continued to learn and has been able to more fully appreciate and understand how the influence of his surroundings can be reflected in the pieces that he produces. “For most of my life I have been interested in history, and how it still directly, and indirectly influences us today.” “There is a connection to many of the traditions that brought us to where we are standing, so how do we give these ancient sensibilities, a modern voice, how do we relate it to now?”

We are fortunate to have Silas Maddox join our conference on Saturday as one of our two featured Demonstrators. Silas attended his first NWBA conference in 2002 after learning about artistic blacksmithing in welding school. He built his first blacksmith shop in his garage during college where he learned some forging and built freak bikes. After taking a 2- month blacksmithing concentration at the Penland School of Crafts in 2006, he has been pursuing blacksmithing almost full time (with a few detours to build homes with the family business).

After travelling the country chasing blacksmithing opportunities, Silas started Forge & Nail in 2011 to focus on architectural and sculptural ironwork while maintaining a foot in the homebuilding world. For the last 7 years Forge & Nail has left construction behind and is focused exclusively on artistic and architectural metals. Silas is a former NWBA Board Member/President and has served as a Demonstrator at past events for the membership.

NWBA is fortunate to have John Huffstutter serving as this year’s “Hot Tips” Demonstrator on Sunday, October 25th. John is a longtime member and one-time board member of the Northwest Blacksmith Association. He co-founded the Columbia Fire and Iron organization with Steve McGrew and a handful of Spokane-area blacksmiths. John has been teaching and demonstrating blacksmithing at ancestral skills gatherings, scouting events, farmers’ markets, hammer-ins, and other events since he accumulated enough skill and smarts to know what to teach–and when to stop and go back to school. He credits many great teachers including Tim Middaugh, Darryl Nelson, Shel Browder, Lisa Geertsen, Jeffrey Funk, Monica Coyne, Gordon Williams, Peter Braspenninx, Mark Aspery, John Emmerling, and many others who have presented at NWBA and ABANA events. Although he never got to work with him, two of Jerry Culberson’s quotes (post in Tim Middaugh’s shop) have stuck with and guided John’s smithing from the start: “Learn the craft, and the art will come” and “If you make something ugly out of steel, it’s gonna be ugly for a long time.” Still working on learning the craft…