The Wareham Forge

Mirror, Mirror...

These pieces represent a much larger body of both custom and regular production work since the 1990's. The individual design of each project is very important to me, so for that reason no two pieces are exactly alike. No use of jigs or factory made parts here! This stress on design, plus the freedom permitted by hand forging each element, means that each objects represents an original work of art.

Click on any of these images for a larger size picture

To better show the progression in styles, the older objects are at the top of each section

Related Section

Furnature & Home Accessories
Expressing Your Unique Style

bed rough

Wall Mirrors - Rectangular ...
"Wall Mirror with Candles" - Winter 1998
This is an early large wall mounted mirror, consisting of a more conventional rectangular panel set into a forged frame. This piece was commissioned as a wedding gift. Two of the fill rods pull out of the frame and end in tubular candle sticks. The overall size is about 30 x 24 inches.
The piece was part of an order for an upscale gallery shop in Virginia Beach (4/ 98). Originally it was also to have a square frame, but as the sweeping curves developed, the design worked so well that I decided to leave it as you see it. The central mirror here is about 12 x 24 inches
Detail
"Wall Mirror with Tendril"

This is one of two pieces commissioned for display / sales at Brenda Roy Designs (in Alliston, Ontario). Both are a more standard rectangular profile mirror surface. The metal flows around the frame, but these are fairly simple pieces (to keep the retail price down).

The first uses the 'feather' element I developed, forged from angle iron ...

curves
... The second uses flat stock curved and spiralled. You notice a style progression in the use of flowing lines without an exterior rectangular framework.
  ... & Ovals
Wings Mirror
"Wings" Oval Mirror

This wall mirror is one of several oval format pieces created in 2001. This is a fairly large piece, the mirror is about 10 x 16", the whole is about 24" tall. The two main elements (the 'wings') are very aggressively forged from 1/4 by 2" flat stock. These are tied together through other flat bars drawn to tendrils and leaf terminals.
oval
This is a large format oval mirror I had custom cut. The bold lines, with the sweeping rush shapes, makes for a large piece. The overall size is about 2 1/2 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide. From about 2000.
oval
oval oval
  The three mirrors above illustrate a short 'production run'. I will often make a number of pieces using a specific format or theme, but generally keep the number of pieces fairly small. I usually find after creating three or four similar objects in a short period, it is hard to keep the individual designs fresh. The oval mirrors here are presented in order that I made them. You can see how the inspiration is sagging as the series progresses. To be fair, the price of the individual objects also was reduced and the relative complexity was reduced. These pieces from the early 2000 + period.
Golden Egg
"Golden Egg" - 2003

This table mounted mirror was created for the exhibit 'Traditions & Innovations'. There is a relationship between the hot work of the forge and cold forming thinner or softer metals. Here copper sheet is dished and curved to hold the mirror, which in turn is supported by an aggressively forged steel base.

Hand Mirrors
hand mirror
"Mortraeth's Mirror"
Its sometimes hard to exactly date some of my earliest pieces, this object likely from the early 1980's. I had always been struck by the lines of a specific Celtic Iron Age artifact, a bronze hand mirror with engraved designs. At one point I had developed considerable skill in a body of work using acid etching as a decorative technique. This mirror was made of 1/8" thick sheet brass, highly polished on one side to a reflective surface. Shown is the back, with its 'lady on unicorn' design.
hand
"Celtic Hand Mirror" - Spring 1997
This object is inspired by the same rather famous Celtic Iron Age object as above. I had wanted to work with a bar contoured with multiple shoulders, then bracketed by rectangular rods. The mirror surface is made of highly polished brass.
hand 2
"Hand Mirror Two" - Fall 1997
This object was made up to showcase the potential of flexibility of small rods, it uses similar elements to the other hand mirror. In this case, a small round glass mirror is held in a dished brass cup. A happy accident resulted in the back of the brass developing a wonderful splotchy green patina. (Now in the private collection of Liesbeth Zwart.)
Celtic Mirror
"Celtic Hand Mirror Two" - Summer 2001

This is another in the series of hand mirrors. In 2001, the 'Earth, Air Celtic Festival' in Goderich called on artists to donate items for a fund raising silent auction. This was the piece that I contributed. The design springs from the hilts of a number of Celtic Iron Age swords, where a human figure cast in bronze forms the handle.

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All text & images © Darrell Markewitz - the Wareham Forge