It’s no surprise that Blacksmiths are the source of legends. The act of making and using tools is elemental to all human societies – it’s empowering and grounding to cut through solid steel; to use air, water and fire to bend iron to our will. At Cardiff Steiner School, our students learn to shape, flatten, texture and twist metal through the use of heat and force, to produce beautiful articles that are also functional.

Blacksmithing is part of our Hard Crafts curriculum alongside copperworking, woodwork and stone carving. These practical subjects are seen as powerful vehicles for teaching across the curriculum. Working with hot forges and hammering metal requires conscious, exact movement; an intellectual concentration; and skillfulness of hand and eye. It develops a tangible understanding of the material (why is it important to ‘strike while the iron is hot’?) and a practical application of theoretical ideas such as Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Arts and Crafts help our students develop a ‘can-do’ attitude. They know how things are made because they make them themselves. They can picture the steps needed to reach their goals. Their motivation is strong and their confidence is high to try new things based on the positive experiences of the past.

“Children who learn while they are young to make practical things by hand in an artistic way, and for the benefit of others as well as for themselves, will not be strangers to life or to other people when they are older. They will be able to form their lives and relationships in a social and artistic way. Out of their hands can come technicians and artists who will know how to solve the problems and tasks set us.”

~Rudolf Steiner