The Softer Side of Metal — Blacksmithing Fashion

Delicate. Soulful. Evocative. These aren’t typically the terms you hear us throw around when we speak of a blacksmith’s work. However, this artist is anything but typical.

Ellen Durkan, known as Iron Maiden Forge, has been creating elaborate and mesmerizing works of fashion that are born from hot steel on the anvil. At a glance you might think a piece is a soft neck ruffle, accentuating a flowing gown, but upon further inspection you’ll find that the curves are frozen in time, molded in steel or copper by a skilled hand.

While she was a student in art school in Delaware, Durkan worked with steel frames, draped with fabric. She found herself drawn to the metal frames themselves, ultimately driving her to begin teaching herself forging. All of her art starts with the human form and in her words, needs the human form to be properly displayed.

“The human figure has always been an important part,” she says. “I think my work, in order to be experienced properly, needs to be on the body. Metalwork is just part of the art.”

Photography by Joe Hoddinott @phojoegraphy

The shapes that evoke the curves of the human body can morph to living plants or weave into intricate leather works of fashion. Being self taught, Durkan’s work is ever evolving. Her most recent area of expansion is repoussé, allowing her to make even more finely sculptured structures that can mimic the human form — not only a figurative layer to her work, but in some cases even a literal layer of art. See her piece Speak (featured), which involves a feminine face, trapped behind a finely formed mask with an impassive expression, trapped again behind a wrought iron cage.

This article appeared in Make: Vol. 73.