Soulful Iron

New idea for a candle holder. Didn't work quite how I intended but will tidy it next week as ran out of time yesterday in the forge :)

Had great fun last weekend doing a demo day at Newport Medieval Ship Project.

Even managed to sneak in a quick tutorial for another stallholder at the end of the day!

Great fun :)

After about 6 weeks with no due to a prolonged forge move, the forge is finally running again!

Didn't have change to make much before the stall at today, but did manage to make a new style little hook. Going to make a few of these for my truck conversion as they are great for small spaces like trucks, or small cloakrooms or hallways.

Will be on the Soulful Iron website soon!

After a week or so off poorly ( attack landing me in hospital!), glad to be back on my Blacksmithing stall in !

Nice sunny day, and hopefully not EVERYONE is at !

Obviously as a Blacksmtih I work a lot with steel, but copper is great to work with, too! Playing with making copper cuff bracelets....

What do you think?

Do you use Twitter? If so, you can help save a life & stop medical neglect at 11am TODAY

Twitter Storm at 11am. Please read.

An 18 year old, Millie, who suffers from Very Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E) is being refused the medical treatment she needs, whilst simultaneously being given highly inappropriate and harmful treatments. Highly qualified, specialist M.E doctors have tried to give advice to the hospital, but the hospital are ignoring this.

Millie may die. That’s how serious this is (other M.E patients have died in hospital in similar scenarios… But they just don’t learn!).
REQUEST:

I’ll give a link to more info below, however the request is that tomorrow at 11am, you share a tweet as part an an organised TWITTER STORM at 11am TODAY (Tuesday 9th April).
Please take mins of your day to help save a life!

* Copy one or more of the tweets below and share to Twitter

* If you don't have Twitter, other ways to help in the first comment.

Here are the tweets, ready to copy/paste (please pick one at random if possible):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hss2mGGoQxj0-Yv0EVFgFat7VvTuWDedC2PeZCEnhU8/edit?usp=sharing

This matters to me both as a human being, and as the carer to my partner, who is bed bound with Severe M.E.

Thanks for your time

Mike
Ps. I promise NOT to use the tag again for a while, but this is literally life or death for Mille

Millie Tweets

Blacksmithing stall at today! Call in to say hello if you're about!

Glad to be here, after locking the keys in my pickup this morning before setting off! Thankfully a trusty old coat hanger got me in! Phew! 😂

One of my latest forged items... hand forged steel rose :) This is fiddly to make, but fun!

I also sprinkled powdered copper over the petals whilst they were hot (still glowing orange heat), to give a copper hue effect to some of the petals.

Great fun to make these! (two different sizes in the pics)

https://soulfuliron.co.uk/ (but the roses are not on the website... I sell them at Stroud farmer's market. I need to find a way to post them safely! Then they'll be on the website.

Hand forged Snake pendants - All hand forged by me.

I'll be adding a video of these being made soon, too.

https://soulfuliron.co.uk/product/hand-forged-snake-pendant-uk/

New hand forged products on the website!

Hand forged heart keyrings! Available with, or without copper fused in the centre.

https://soulfuliron.co.uk/product/hand-forged-stamped-heart-keyring/

And

Hand forged spiral heart keyrings:

https://soulfuliron.co.uk/product/heart-key-chain/

Made some steel roses for day. Selling them today at Stroud farmers market and will be on the website after the weekend :)

valentines

Experimenting with copper powder on the hand forged heart bowls... I think I like it!

Added a YouTube channel... Any subscribes very welcome, it all helps... 😉

Soulful Iron Blacksmithing - YouTube Soulful Iron - Artist Blacksmith Mike GraciaI’m an artist blacksmith based in Wales (just over the bridge from Bristol). I trained in Blacksmithing at the N...

Sadly I won't make Caerphilly market today :(

This is due to a mix of double booking and vehicle issues!

Instead though, I'll be at Stroud farmers market.

I'm at Caerphilly again this Saturday for my last blacksmithing stall of 2023!

Nip down and see not only my hand forged goods, but also lots of other beautiful handmade crafts!

Our last market for 2023 will be happening this Saturday and as always we have an amazing group of small businesses joining us

Welsh Italian Pizza Co.
Choppy's Chilli Pantry
Carla's Candles
NakedSister Skin Care
Lili Wen Welshcakes
Karen L' s Creation
Cymru Scents
LDwoodTurning
Sofia's Pastries
Chaos Cult
Soulful Iron
Jewellery by Kay
Bags by Sandra
Etched by 10
hannahmariemagic
Trecastle Eggs
R R Confectionery
AJ The Confectionist
Wood'n Cord

Everyone is welcome to join us

Visit Caerphilly
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Cllr Jamie Pritchard
The Big Phill - Caerphilly
Castle Court Shopping Centre, Caerphilly

Looking forward to being at this event in this coming Saturday!

Swing by to check out some amazing handmade goods from 25+ local makers, crafts people, and artists!

I'll be there with some hand forged goods, but even if that's not you thing, there'll be LOADS of other amazing goods for sale!

Likely some lovely tempting food, too!

Look what we have in store for you next Saturday 😳

🛍️ Over 25 small local businesses will be with us selling their homemade/handmade crafts and food
From 10am - 4pm

Also we have 🌟FREE🌟

✨ Magic Shows 🪄 11am. 12:30pm. 2:30pm
🤹‍♂️ Circus Workshops 11am - 3pm
🤡 Facepainting 11am - 3pm
🎅🏼 Santa meet & greet 11am - 3pm

And Caerphilly MIND will also be joining us to offer support to adults in the community 🫶🏻

There’s something for everyone next Saturday so pop along to Castle Court to what will be a great day out.

Visit Caerphilly
Caerphilly County Borough Council
The Big Phill - Caerphilly
Cllr Jamie Pritchard
Castle Court Shopping Centre, Caerphilly
Caerphilly Borough Mind
Caerphilly Borough

HOGi HOGi HOGi. Old Griffin Kitchen AAcatering
Doggy Bandanas Daisychain Creations Talbot Truffles Carla's Candles Tia Robbins Art Bopa Bach & Beti Bach Waggle Treats - Dog Treats by Jacob Hearts & Dragonflies - Chainmaille Jewellery Cymru Scents LDwoodTurning Jans crafts & gifts Sofia's Pastries Everlilly Jewellery by Kay Welsh Lady Arts & Crafts Wirework by Amanda Wood And Welsh Wool Soulful Iron Etched by 10 Deebee Crafts R R Confectionery Trecastle Eggs Babi Bw Ltd
Wood'n Cord

New product coming next week!

hearts keyrings.

As they are hand forged, no two hearts are the same... just like real hearts!

Will be added to the https://soulfuliron.co.uk website early next week!

At Tredegar House Christmas Craft Fair today, in Newport

Bright but cold morning!!! https://instagr.am/p/C0EONDFsvUR/

At NT Tredegar House Christmas Craft Fair today, in Newport

Bright but cold morning!!!

This was back in the summer, doing a demo for the Newport Medieval Ship Project.

It was a great, fun day - none stop forging till it closed.

In keeping with the theme, I was using my old foot-bellows operated forge and burning lumpwood charcoal... I think from memory I got through about 9 sacks!.

The Newport Ship Project is well worth a visit, if you've never been! https://instagr.am/p/Cz7pv2miUZI/

Commute to the forge should be quicker from now on... https://instagr.am/p/CxL5ex5MfEa/

Great afternoon out at an old Waterwheel powered forge that's a bit of a museum. Churchill Forge Mill.

Interesting to see the old technology that in many ways, I think is much better than today!

No need to electricity, using the power of one of our elements, water, to drive shafts to power tools:

- From drop hammers to creating wind for the forge (via a fan not bellows they said!), to grinding wheels and presses. Great stuff.

https://instagr.am/p/CxGCwk8M_mK/

Great day at Newport Medieval Ship Project ship today for their open day, doing a demo.

Using an old bellows forge with Charcoal, demonstrating making nails by hand (amongst other things)... of which there were 10' of thousands in the Newport ship, or varying sizes.

Started swinging the hammer at about 9:45am, didn't stop or have a break fill well after 4pm as it was so popular, with non-stop visitors and questions/chats. A great day!

Relentless hammer swinging with extreme heat from the forge, perfect.

9 sacks of charcoal burnt through!

Newport Medieval Ship Summer Open Day

To celebrate finally getting my s**t together enough to start selling my Blacksmithing wares, and to help engagement etc, I'm running a little contest!

WIN a £25 voucher to spend at my website https://soulfuliron.co.uk

HOW TO ENTER:
-----------------

1) LIKE this page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088699356892

2) COMMENT on THIS post, saying what your favourite item is on the site at the moment.

3) SHARE this post!

THAT'S IT! A winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday!

Hand forged Christmas tree ornament. A great choice for a 'non-plastic' Christmas tree decoration1

quite a unique and unusual decoration, forged from mild steel. Every line on these trees is a blow from the cross-pein of my hammer - Truly hand forged! Each one will be unique due to the nature of hand forging.

Hand forged Christmas Tree Decoration Beautiful hand forged Christmas tree decorations, forged from mild steel. Each one will be slightly unique as they are hand forged.

Hand forged heart bowls. Made from mild steel and hand forged over a bowl former, with ball pain hammer marks left in.

Finished with a hot beeswax polish

Hand Forged Heart Bowl Whether buying for your home or as a gift for a loved ones, these heart bowls are a true gift from the heart. Each heart bowl is hand forged by Mike Gracia, and retains the distinctive hammer marks on the surface, which gives the bowls a lovely texture. These bowls…