Since setting up his own workshop in 1988 he has made traditional and contempory ironwork to suit a variety of environmentsand budgets.His work as a blacksmith is to forge hot metal. “To forge” is to manipulate by hammering, squeezing, bending, twisting and shaping hot metals. When hot (between cherry red and white) steel becomes formable much like plasticine and the job of the blacksmith is to take the raw material and make a functional itemthat works and looks aesthetically pleasing.

Forging is an age old craft, pottery may have taken humans forward in cooking and storage but it was the early blacksmiths who made the tools for construction and agriculture. Every metal item throughout history was made by blacksmiths – from the first axe to the first clock.

In 1991 James stepped back to the C17th for a major BBC production,spending two days forging for the cameras making agricultural hand tools at Finch’s Foundry in Sticklepath.

Being formally trained has given him a very wide range of metalworking skills and this coupled with a strong feel for design makes him able to take on a variety ofcommissions both large andsmallfrom the initialdesign workto the installation. These commissions have included work for he National Trust, Royal Horticultural Society, manor houses and many architects.