Sharon Wisely
O’Fallon, IL

I'm a self-taught jewelry artist who began with beads and wire wrapping, but I quickly developed a love for working with heavier metal ... especially COPPER. It patinas beautifully and obediently yields to a hammer. My new favorite pastime is finding old hammers at flea markets that will provide awesome textures on my metals. Pure bliss is having a torch in one hand and a hammer in the other!

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John Lovin
Belle Rive, IL

As an artist blacksmith I am proud to produce the finest in hand forged ironwork, each piece created by hammer, fire, and anvil, drawing from generations of craftsmen the processes, designs and nostalgia of a time gone by.  I appreciate what was made and how a piece was made a century and a half ago, then to reproduce a similar item using antique tools and techniques, incorporating my own expression in design and function.  I honor the traditional nature of the craft, knowing that a blacksmith from 1850 could walk into my shop and comfortably start working.  My work is labor intensive, yet I find immediate satisfaction, for I see the work take form, from start to finish.  If we are to understand where we are going as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a country – then we have to understand where we have been, and I believe that’s where the knowledge of traditional crafts has the greatest value.

Check out my work!