In 1995, Mark Pearce started his own workshop to create original and functional art as an artsmith. He has been a journeyman smith since 1985. Mark and his team forge a wide variety of original works, from elaborate gates and church furniture to staircases and interior furniture. Mark is emphatic that all the work, from initial design right through to completion and installation, is done by him and his team of smiths. Builders and architects are consulted throughout when it comes to gateways and architectural embellishments. Exact drawings and measurements ensure right proportions.

Mark’s medium is not often completely understood by the public. It is different entirely from cast iron, in which molten metal is poured into moulds, and from modern fabrication, in which standard sections of steel are cut, possibly bent, and welded or bolted together. Simply put, the iron is heated in a furnace or forge and hammered into shape. Operations such as elongating, spreading, tapering, bending, punching, thickening, splitting and welding are all carried out on red-hot metal in a highly skilled, carefully timed and often very forceful fashion. In fact, the most indispensable tool to the smith besides the traditional forge, hammer, anvil and tongs is the power hammer, which enables Mark to form very large sections of metal quickly and accurately