Blacksmith Lessons

Why I Like to Teach

      As for many of you that know me and for those that don’t, I love my Blacksmithing. I live and dream about blacksmithing most days and have done so for the last 20 years, bar a gap of 3 years spent in Saudi Arabia where I had the barest minimum of equipment and […]

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Axelsen,Denise,dble-handle Board

Too Beautiful to Use ?

I actually hear this quite a lot after I’ve finished forging handles on my chopping boards/cheese boards/food platters ! Sometimes they take me days to make, which don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love making. I explain to customers the length it usually starts off at and how I heat it up and bash it […]

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Bronwyn Pratt-2

‘Past to Present’ Exhibition

Goldsmith’s Gallery, San Remo, Victoria I never knew it but there are many similarities between jewellers and blacksmiths.    End of April saw an amazing weekend away in San Remo, Victoria, at the Opening of the ‘Past to Present’ Exhibition. It presented a retrospective jewellery exhibition featuring Bronwyn Pratt  (owner) and 12 other invited Australian […]

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Axelsem,Denise,workshop views,coffee table

Coffee Table Commission

A memorable commission came from a wonderful textile artist and her woodworker husband. They wanted a coffee table base made for their daughter who was moving into a new home.They gave me free reign for the style -I used a piece of wood he had already crafted using the natural organic shape and raw edge. They had previously commissioned […]

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Axelsen,Denise,tiebacks

Curtain tie-back commission

        One of my commissions has been to make seven pairs of curtain tie backs for a couple who have just built their forever home, northwest of Melbourne.   They had in mind a simple holdback and knew my style of work from following me on Facebook/Instagram. The challenge I foresaw was the mounting […]

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sculpture

Townsville Eco House Piece

One of the builders in Townsville built a six-star rated house, which he decided to incorporate all environmentally friendly products as much as possible and tech-savvy design/aesthetics– all to use as small a footprint as possible. From every new build there tends to be an awful lot of wastage that gets dumped into the skip from left over bits […]

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Axelsen,Denise,funky wagnell's

B is for Book – Studio2 Gallery

  Previous to the opening of the Drill Hall Studio I worked in a gallery called Studio2 run by Sue Tilley and Selena Smith before it closed in 2013. The studio held monthly exhibitions from various solo artists but once a year a themed exhibition would attract a medley of artists -and one such exhibition was called ‘Funky […]

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