The art & craft of working with fire
Meet six Maine metalsmiths
What do you get when you combine primordial materials, searing heat, immense skill, artistic vision and a sprinkling of alchemy?
You get stunning, enduring creations from some of Maine’s most accomplished metalworkers. We profile six of them here, from artisans who have been plying their trade for decades to those who are newer to the art, with a focus on smaller, functional pieces, from the rustic to the refined.
By June Donenfeld
Erica Moody
PHOTO: ERICA MOODY
Erica Moody embarked on her career as a professional metal fabricator in 1994, then started her own custom metalwork business in 2001, producing commissioned pieces for architects and designers, including railings, hardware, furniture and sculpture. In 2016, she started a new line of fine metal serving and flatware of her own designs.
Working out of her post-and-beam barn studio in Waldoboro on the Midcoast, Erica employs a range of traditional metalworking and jewelry techniques, along with old analog industrial machines, to work her magic, fashioning her elegant, contemporary streamlined pieces out of brass, copper or steel, with occasional wood accents. Want to get a preview of her new, one-of-a-kind work—and first dibs on it? Sign up online for her newsletter and you won’t miss a thing.
In addition to her work as a creator, Erica is a skilled teacher too, both of her studio assistants and students who take her in-person and online workshops; check her website and Instagram page for more info. She’s taught at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport on the Midcoast, the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and the famed Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. And to give back to the community, Erica donates 10% of online sales each month to a different cause.
Wicks Forge
COURTESY PHOTO
When Nicholas Wicks Moreau entered graduate school in Scotland in 2011, a career as a blacksmith wasn’t part of the plan, but fate decreed otherwise. While studying in Edinburgh, seeking a creative outlet and a new skill, blacksmithing beckoned, and as luck (or destiny) would have it, he found a master blacksmith nearby who took him on as an apprentice. MSc in Ecological Economics in hand, Nick eventually returned to the United States to take a job in New York City, but continued to make his way as a metalworker, going back home to Connecticut on the weekends to fulfill orders, and finally taking the plunge to pursue it full-time.
But perhaps this twist of fate wasn’t so twisty after all. Members of the Wicks family have been in the metalworking trade since the early 1900s. Nick’s great-great-grandfather worked on the Statue of Liberty, and his great-grandfather ran a welding shop and then a welding school in World War II to support the war effort, training men and women alike.
Nick launched Wicks Forge in 2012 in Connecticut, then relocated to Pownal in Maine, where, using the tools he inherited from his forebears (and a 50,000-pound homemade hydraulic press), his forge turns out finely crafted works of utility and beauty, from whimsical animal-shaped hooks to grilling tools to ergonomically designed carbon steel skillets—and that’s just for starters.
Interested in learning the art yourself? Check out Nick’s book The Everyday Blacksmith: Learn to Forge 55 Simple Projects You’ll Use Every Day.
DMG Designs
PHOTO: DANIELLE GERBER
Danielle Gerber is the artist and creator behind DMG designs, a one-woman metalwork studio in Maine’s western mountains, where she moved in 2021 after nearly 15 years in Portland. She now works out of her home studio surrounded by nature in her “little slice of heaven,” as she puts it, using traditional hand-forging and hammering techniques learned in her BFA program in Metalsmithing & Jewelry from the Maine College of Art. She takes her inspiration from Maine’s abundant flora and fauna, from land and sea, using traditional silversmithing processes like raising, chasing and repoussé to shape her materials into refined pieces that will stand the test of time.
Sterling silver, gold, copper and brass transform under her artist’s eye and practiced hands into table-, bar- and homewares, from elegantly simple cocktail or iced tea stirrers to heirloom-quality silver cups traced with fiddlehead ferns. And should you see and yearn for something in your mind’s eye that isn’t on offer in her regular lines, Danielle will work with you to bring it to life, creating one-of-a-kind pieces for you—and generations to come—to use and love. All orders are shipped in plastic-free, 100% recycled or recyclable packaging.
Hammer Forge Creations
PHOTO: LUCAS DAMEN
After apprenticing in a traditional blacksmith shop in Portland for two years, Lucas Damen ventured out on his own to found Hammer Forge Creations in 2015 in the town of Naples, about an hour inland. He focuses on small and functional pieces, like the distinctive charcuterie knives, candlesticks, and even steak turners fashioned from railroad spikes. His work bears the distinctive mark of hand shaping and finishing, speaking to the strong connection he feels, he says, between “the craft of blacksmithing and Earth and humanity itself.” And don’t miss his made-to-order three-piece camp cutlery set, which he describes as made in a “primitive yet elegant style fit for kings and queens.”
As eager to share his knowledge and forge connections as he is to create works himself, you can see Lucas in action at the Fryeburg Fair (October 1–8 this year) in the Blacksmith Shop at the Farm Museum and as a volunteer blacksmith at the historic 19th century Scribners Mill in Harrison, about 15 minutes from Naples.
Lucas also teaches a four-day intensive course for beginner blacksmiths (and up) at the New England School of Metalwork in Auburn. He covers which tools do what and how to use them, all-important ergonomics and project planning, and hands-on forging techniques. His students get their hands dirty (literally) while learning the fundamental skills of blacksmithing: drawing out, upsetting, flaring, punching, splitting and forge welding (we had to look them up, too).
DG Forge
PHOTO: DERECK GLASER
Who’d have thought that the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons would set a career in blacksmithing and education in motion? That’s exactly what happened to Dereck Glaser, who’s the part-time veteran hammer-and-tongs wielder at DG Forge and fulltime director and resident blacksmithing instructor at the New England School of Metalwork (NESM) in Auburn, which he helped found and develop. He first learned about blacksmiths from playing D&D, then started forging in the early 1980s. He founded DG Forge in 1985 and his love of the craft still burns brightly today. In between have been a college degree in Industrial Art Education at Ohio University and teaching positions at schools across the country. In 1996 he won the People’s Choice Award from the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America, moved to Maine with his family in ’97 to teach Metal Arts at the high school level, then went on to help found NESM, which he still leads today. He says that his metalwork’s sensibility draws on European traditions and reflects “the methods and reasoning behind traditional joinery,” along with the influences of the numerous “past and present masters” whose work he’s studied, including Nol Putnam, Samuel Yellin, Fritz Kuhn and Otto Schmirler. Among Dereck’s current standout items are a dragonhead bottle opener, a leaf-shaped candlestick and a long, spiral-ended flipping tool for the grill, which will keep your arms out of heat’s harm and let you turn meat or vegetables with accuracy and aplomb.
Nick Rossi Knives
PHOTO: JASON RIVARD
Nick’s career as an accomplished bladesmith and instructor has its roots in a boyhood fascination with knives and swords that continued into his teens, when he started working at one of Maine’s biggest cutlery shops and learning about the world of custom knifemaking through local craftspeople. Nick initially developed his smithing skills through books, advice and seminars, and then began selling his work under the “Rossi Knives” name. In the beginning, he says, he thought that a knowledge of “metallurgy, machining and woodworking” would be at the heart of what he had to know to become a custom knifemaker. But knifemaking sparked other interests in adjacent fields like sociology, history, materials science and industry, and it was these that clinched his decision to devote his life to the craft.
In 2006, he signed on as a bladesmithing instructor at NESM, while also running Rossi Knives part-time and working for a local technical fabrics company. The school offered him a full-time position in 2011, and he worked as an instructor and assistant program director till 2020. Nick now runs Nick Rossi Knives full-time out of his studio in Vassalboro, in Kennebec County, where he creates stunning blades of all sorts, for use in the kitchen, the woods and even the garden; stylistically, he notes that his pieces are “most influenced by Japanese, Southeast Asian and Scandinavian design” and “architecture, fine art and nature.”
A certified Master Bladesmith in the American Bladesmith Society and a member of the New England Bladesmith Guild, Nick shares his knowledge in workshops and demonstrations around the country. Can’t make it to one of his in-person classes? He offers online instruction, too.
On the cover: In far DownEast Maine, the parklands of Cobscook Shores protect miles of pristine shorefront.