It’s that time again. LAMA’s 2005
conference – “Banging On the Bayou” is set for Saturday and Sunday March 12
and 13, 2005
at the grounds of Beaver Park, across from the airport, in
Lafayette, Louisiana. This years conference will a great two day event
.
Sign-in starts at 8:00 AM and professional blacksmith demonstrator Bob Patrick is lined up for a great learning
experience.
A tailgate area will be set up for your buying or sale of tools
and “stuff”. Lunch is included both days.
An auction in the evening and
raffle drawing for a box of handmade blacksmith tools followed by
an evening
crawfish boil on site will culminate Saturdays activities.
Click here for raffle tickets. Admission is only $35 Prior to Mar. 1 or $40
thereafter,
Jerry Baker, 337-232-7958 email
jbaker5175@earthlink.net or David
Bernard, 337-837-8810, email
dbaarch@bellsouth.net.
Hope to see you there. Please pre-register so we know how much food to prepare
click for registration form click here for maps
Bob Patrick
Bob Patrick's Bio
I was born in 1948 and grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I studied violin from the are of 6 and was in the Akron University Orchestra from the age of 12 to the age of 15 at which time I quit playing violin for a number of years.
I graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School in 1966 and attended Kent State University. I switched majors and never got a degree, I majored in Chemistry, Geology, and Art. I taught blacksmithing while attending school in the Art School at Kent State under the famous goldsmith and jeweler, Mary Ann Scherr in the early 1970’s. I had several very good students, the best known of whom was Steve Rosenberg, who was chairman of the 1982 Artist Blacksmiths of North America Conference in Ripley, West Virginia.
I set up a program about Early American Crafts and taught it at the Supplementary Education Center in Cleveland Ohio 1969-70 for the Cleveland Board of Education.
I attended Midwest Farrier School, Xenia, Ohio and graduated in 1971.
I worked as the head blacksmith (usually only!) at Hale Farm and Village, Bath Ohio, from 1967-1974 or so with breaks in between working for school and other jobs.
In 1975 I moved to the Ozarks and with Gerald Brostek opened Big Anvil Forge in Moody, MO. In 1978 I moved the business to Bethel, MO in Northeast MO and also opened Big Anvil Forge School of Blacksmithing. There I did restoration work, art work, farm repair, horseshoing, and also taught blacksmithing. While there I was selected as Master Blacksmith 3 times for the State of Missouri by Missouri Cultural Heritage along with the Missouri Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. I demonstrated blacksmithing under the Arch in St. Louis and another park in the Frontier Folklife Festivals under the Department of the Interior between 1978 - about 1982. I was also lead fiddler in an Irish music group at the time.
In 1984 or so I was one of the founders of the Blacksmith Association of Missouri (BAM), a Chapter of the Artist Blacksmiths of North America. BAM named their top award the Bob Patrick Founders Award and it is given out each year at the Ozark Blacksmith Conference.
In 1989 I moved to Arkansas and worked for Metal Specialties in Mountain Home as a plant manager, then Stone Country Ironworks in Mountain View as their Master Blacksmith. I had helped teach the founder of Stone County Ironworks, Dave Matthew's, how to blacksmith when he was first starting and had done some workshops at the Ozark Folk Center. I moved to Arkansas to save money for surgery, after the surgery I started a business, Anvils with a partner, based in Bruno, Arkansas. We also had the US branch of Claydon Architectural Metals, a British company owned by artist/blacksmith Stuart Hill. These businesses did a variety of blacksmithing, tool manufacture and architectural jobs.
In the year 2000 Anvils ceased business and I moved to my present location in Everton Arkansas. In 2001 I married basket maker Mary Hunt, now Mary Patrick. I have a blacksmithing business at home, Bob Patrick Fine Blacksmithing, and also collaborate with Mary on baskets and other work.
In 2002 I was awarded the top honor for Artist Blacksmiths, the Alex Bealer Award, given to one blacksmith every year or less for service to the Artist Blacksmiths and preserving the art of blacksmithing.
I have demonstrated at 3 National Artist Blacksmith Conferences in the USA and once at the National Canadian Conference, CanIron III ins Saskatchewan in 2001. I have demonstrated all over the USA at regional conferences and taught at a variety of blacksmithing schools including the Ozark School of Blacksmithing in Potosi, MO and John Campbell Folk School.
I have done blacksmithing that covers most of the facets of the blacksmiths trade, including helping start Johnson Sleighs, now out of business, a horse drawn sleigh business in Northfield, Ohio, in 1986. One of our sleighs was exhibited at the Cleveland Art Museum.
In addition to blacksmithing I currently play violin with a group, On the Brinke. I have a background in fiber arts, spinning and weaving, have built several looms and spinning wheels and in the past did spinning and weaving as well as braided leather work. I have also built 2 electric clay mixers for professional potters and a variety of other equipment I use along with virtually all of my own hand tools.
Mary and I live with my mother Mabel, on a hilltop outside of Everton, Arkansas.