Ковальська Фабрика АРМА - ковані меблі для спальні, вітальні, кабінета; дашкі, решітки на вікна, навіси, сходи, каміни та камінні набори, поруччя, ворота, паркани, огорожі, вітражі, балкони, настінні декорації, сувернірна продукція.

Ukraine and 4th International Ivano-Frankivsk balcksmith festival through the eyes of Bethan Griffits, Great Britain

Ivano-Frankivsk Blacksmithing festival, 5-7th May 2006, UKRAINE

Welcome to the land of vodka, lard sandwiches, horses & carts – the list goes on- but oh what memories of a six day trip to the Ukraine.

Definitely not your standard package holiday, but certainly recommended.

On the 4th May ’06 Terry Clark, Becca Clark, Nigel Barnett, and myself flew out to the Western region of the Ukraine to attend the 4th International Festival of Blacksmiths in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, organised by the Ukrainian union of Artist Blacksmiths. Around 300 blacksmiths attended representing 19 nationalities.

The warmth of our reception on our arrival was touching. We all felt like guests of honour, being picked up from the airport, having interpreters and a historical tour guide of the city.

All we had to do was follow the timetable which even including excursions. The programme advertised a ‘friendly party’ on the opening night, a title that still makes me smirk, but there again maybe I am privileged in never having been to an ‘unfriendly’ party.

At the end of the meal we had speeches and to Terry’s surprise, acknowledging what an eminent smith he is, the party was officially dedicated to him – happy 60th Terry – what a birthday party. As the finishing touch, out came the cake not only decorated with hammer and tongs but rather impressive fireworks, capturing two of his great loves – perfect! The main focus of the festival was the joint blacksmithing project on the Saturday, to which all the visiting smiths contributed.

This year’s task was to create, a ‘Masters Bouquet’ incorporating your favourite decorative elements be they nails, horseshoes, animals heads, leaves, flowers, etc.

These bouquets were then attached to a spiral structure creating the ‘Bouquet of Masters’, a sculpture to be installed in one of the city squares. For inspiration we all attended the grand unveiling of last years project in Rynok square, entitled ‘Spring’.

To do the forging the four of us joined forces with two Americans, Terry Carson and Brian Brazeal, and one French man, Stйphane Chevalier, to make an interpretation of the emblem on the Ukrainian flag.

We could hardly count Terry Clark as part of our group for no sooner had we started, than he was whisked off to a news conference where he and other ‘well-known’ smiths did interviews for TV, radio and newspapers.

The interest the festival generated created national coverage, quite a feat and wonderful for blacksmithing. If only we could manage that here! Since we all flew out, taking tools seemed to be a silly idea so instead we begged and borrowed, which worked out fine despite the language barriers.

Our neighbouring smiths, with whom we could only talk in sign language, were very helpful. All the work was done on bottom blast fires with a fuel which was new to me. It seemed like a cross between large lumps of coal and aero bars, the amount of surface heat it gave off was immense. I don’t think my face could have got any redder if I had tried.

We worked in the central city square where other demonstrations also took place throughout the day. There were stalls showing copper roses, medieval smiths using wooden box forges and a contemporary artist making three dimensional pictures in sheet metal with an oxyacetylene torch.

In the middle of it all were knights in shining armour recreating a tournament from the Crimea.

The blacksmithing conference had quite a list of speakers including:- Emma Krasnobajeva (editor of the ‘world of metal’ magazine); Yurij Krush (artist blacksmith, Belarus); Mykola Vizins’kyj (head of the Liviv branch of Ukrainian Union of Artist Blacksmiths); Borodina Tatiana (Moscow Artistic Union of Blacksmiths); Tobias Schumacher (editor of ‘Hephaistos’ magazine, Germany); Johannes Angele (Germany);

And guess what – Terry Clark (artist blacksmith, UK) got up there too! The presentations were all translated, much like watching a subtitled film, and varied in subject and length. Despite a technical hitch with the PowerPoint system, all speakers took it in their stride. There were two exhibitions during the festival.

The first was by students from art institutions within the Ukraine, although mostly forged work, a few pieces of jewellery and sheet work were also included.

The second exhibition was open to all smiths with a huge variety of techniques and style in the work on display, which I felt was a true representation of the Ukrainian approach to blacksmithing – very experimental and individual.

The competence of the smiths in both design and techniques was inspiring, especially as it was commonplace to come across forged metal work whilst out and about. What was slightly surprising however, given the skills these smiths undoubtedly had, was how a lot of forged work was welded together, often with little if any discretion.

The overall impression though was that not only was ironwork popular with customers, they were not afraid to experiment. This was a wonderful surprise, and very different to the array of fabricated work we are surrounded by. No doubt many smiths went home with their heads buzzing with new ideas to play with – we all certainly did.

Blacksmithing aside the Ukraine was a very interesting country to visit. Although definitely a developed and ‘westernised’ country, what particularly caught my attention was the heavy reliance on growing your own food. Everywhere we went we saw families working on their plots of land – by hand! Although there were some tractors the majority we saw used horses. In contrast to this the countryside also had a very industrial atmosphere with large overland pipes everywhere, sometimes just popping out of the ground in the middle of nowhere only to then do a u-turn and dive back in again. As for large plastic bottles of clear liquid, never, even when on the dinner table, assume they are water – filling your glass only to find you’ve got a complete mouthful of vodka can be a bit of a shock. With food all I can recommend is be adventurous and just don’t ask what it is until afterwards, how else do you find out that lard is good sandwich filler?

Thanks

The festival was made truly enjoyable thanks to the Ukrainian Union of Artist Blacksmiths and Sergiy Polubotoko, president of the Union, and his right hand man in the organisation (meriting gold stars for her hard work) his wife, Olga. Our trip was made possible with thanks to the Jinni Quinnell fund and BABA, whom we were representing.

Special thanks also go to the festival sponsors without whom this year’s festival wouldn’t have been possible.

· ‘Alchevsk Metallurgic Combine’ – a metal producing company.
· ‘Prykarpattiaoblenergo’ an electric company.
· ‘Dekra’ – a financial group, whose director Vintoniak V. have always supported the preservation and development of folk , cultural and sport traditions of the region.

Points of Reference for Future Travellers

BUDGETING – The most expensive part was the flight at Ј350 each. Considering a pint of beer was 30p and a hotel room Ј22 per night, costs out there were pretty cheap.

CUSTOMS – To get through customs you need your travel insurance documents and information stating where you are going and staying (and strangely the same information as you leave). Needless to say there was quite a bit of rummaging through bags and scratching of heads when we arrived.

SONGS – it only took a couple of vodka’s for the sing-a- longs to start and do note, everyone is expected to take a turn. So unless, like us, your happy with ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ do learn an old drinking song or two before you go.

FLAGS – if you’re asked to take your national flag then do. Due to a misunderstanding we were the only nationality to turn up without one. This put an end to the celebration of the collaboration of all nations where flags are hoisted on the sculpture – the rule is all or nothing!

Written by Bethan Griffits, Great Britain for “British Blacksmith” magazine.
Photos by Johannes Angele and Tobias Schumacher (Germany)

головна | про компанію | проекти | приклади робіт | прес-релізи | контакти