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Feb 26, 2016
Patrick Quinn is a full-time blacksmith in Florida, New York. He graduated with honors in sculpture from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University continued his education with Southern Illinois University to pursue his masters. He is now a teacher at the Center for Metals Arts.
What We Talked About
- While completing his bachelor’s degree at Alfred university he focused in fabrication of sheet metal work and hollow forms.
- When Patrick graduated he moved to Vermont for a job at a production forge company as a welder, but the company only had an opening for a blacksmith to mainly work on the power hammer and hydraulic bending machines pumping out production pieces, so he was hired for that position.
- While Patrick was working at the production forge he rented a local barn to have his own studio space to practice his hand forging.
- Eventually, he quit his job and ran his own blacksmith business in Vermont for a few years. This led him to some big stainless steel jobs to complete in NYC during the winters. This allowed him to live in Vermont in the summertime to work on his portfolio.
- In 2011, he applied to a graduate program at Southern Illinois University, a 3-year program.
- He now works for the Center for Metal Arts as the blacksmith program director and class instructor. The school is in Florida, New York an hour north of New York City.
- The school offers 1 to 4-day classes for all levels of blacksmithing, as well as silver soldering, enameling, and jewelry making.
- While most of the classes he teaches are on the weekends, he uses the weekdays to make private commissioned work. Most of the commissions are architectural in nature, and he will add his sculptural designs to them.
- Patrick will be part of the 2016 ABANA conference demonstrations, he is one of the team of 12 working with Jake James on a collaborative sculpture.
- The school’s shop consists of milling machine, a lathe, 5 welding machines, bandsaws, platen and fabrication layout tables, 3 power hammers, 8 forging stations complete with anvils, forges, and hand tools.
- Patrick likes to read books that are technique based for forging, open die forging, tool making and older books about crafts.
- When asked who would he spend a day with learning from – he answered to work with the guys at the Hay Budden Anvil making shop in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s.
Guest Links
Patrick’s website - http://www.patrickjquinn.com/
The Center for Metal Arts website - http://www.centerformetalarts.com/
A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – The Center for Metal Arts
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