150mmchallenge

Product Description

AI150mm

#150mmchallenge

The #150mmchallenge is a celebration of process, material and ingenuity in forged metal. It all began when British tutor Ambrose Burne gave his students at Hereford College of Arts, UK, a ‘warm-up’ challenge to create something interesting out of a small rectangular piece of steel, 150mm x 20mm x 20mm. They each had three weeks to make something out of the piece, without adding anything else, and they posted photos of their completed work onto Instagram, using the hashtag #150mmchallenge.

The challenge attracted attention online and it quickly ‘went viral’ - catching the interest of blacksmiths around the world. It was so successful that blacksmiths mailed their objects to Hereford in England to be exhibited there in 2019, in a show featuring 240 metal objects from 19 countries, all inspired by the original #150mmchallenge and curated and produced by HCA’s Artist Blacksmithing Course Leader Delyth Done.

Curator Delyth Done says, “After our original UK Ferrous blacksmithing festival, we continued to encourage new #150mmchallenge work in a second callout and I’ve been able to select the 150 US exhibition pieces from over 400 submissions.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Any blacksmith that is handed a pristine hardback with a white cover and a crisp image of a single familiar bar of steel stock will check their hands for traces of forge grime before accepting and opening the proffered book.

And so begins an immersive journey of inspirational shapes and forms created by amateur and professional smiths working hot from the fire all starting out with the same stock of mild steel, 20mm square x 150mm long. This is a book for the soul that you will return to just for the joy of the imaginative mind and skillful craftsmanship of the artist blacksmith.

The response (to the #150mmchallenge) was phenomenal.  Inspired smiths from around the world picked up that small piece of 20mm square bar 150mm long and began moving the volume of material with heat to express themselves creatively and joyfully with humour and skill creating an imaginative range of work.

The book contains 330 beautifully photographed full colour images, shot against a white background. This elevates each piece to individual artworks as with each turn of the page you are presented with a double page layout of images”. - Shona Johnson

Hardcover, 128 pages, 338 color photos, 8-1/2-in x 11-in.