Blacksmith for a day: Cobargo Community Tree Project to launch with Leaf Forging Day

The memorial sculpture project has been spearheaded by Iain and Sarah Hamilton of Mother Mountain Forge in Dignams Creek and Philippe Ravenell of Galba Forge in Wandella.

On Sunday October 3, Mr Hamilton and Mr Ravenell will be guiding the community to forge their own leaves with their names that will be eventually added to the tree.

The blacksmiths will be set up with forges, hammers, and tongs for people to participate from 9am until 5pm.

The tools, PPE gear, forges (small oven), and anvils (steel block used during hammering) have been funded through the Cobargo Community Bushfire Relief Fund.

The steel was donated by Narooma Stainless and Vulcan Steel and the gas for the entire project has been donated by BOC gas in Bega.

Ms Hamilton said they were inspired by a similar project in Victoria where blacksmiths from around the country sent in leaves, but that they wanted to make their own project more community-based.

"We wanted it to be a community-based project, so just the people in the community will be making the leaves instead of the people outside the community," she said.

"It starts as a triangle of steel and then Iain and Philippe will be taking them through the process to take that triangle into a leaf shape.

"The time for each leaf will depend on each person, we're hoping that it takes under an hour but some people might get through it quite quickly because they are just more experienced at using tools, but other people might get very nervous about using tools and the metal because they've never done it before.

"We've got letter stamps that will then be used to stamp their names into the underside of the leaf."

There will be about five people at a time using the equipment to make the leaves and they will be aiming to get through as many leaves on the day as possible but the project will require around 2,000 leaves and so it will take a year or two before the leaves are finished.

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Starting within the the next few weeks, Ms Hamilton said there would be days held at their workshop and at Mr Ravenell's workshop where people can come and create their own leaf. More information on these dates will be on their website once it is live later this week.

"We will also be doing more community forging days in the future" said Ms Hamilton.

"The leaf stage could take a couple of years, but after that it will be the creating of the actual tree and the branches and then attaching all the leaves to that."

The leaves will be stored by the blacksmiths and once complete, attached by structural welders and engineers.

Ms Hamilton said once the project was finished, the tools and the equipment would be either donated to the tool library or to a young person who is wanting to get started as a blacksmith.

As this is a community-based project, the leaf forging will only be available to people from the Cobargo or Quaama region and all their localities.

People can come along to find out more about on the project on Sunday and bookings for the leaf forging groups will be available when the website is launched later this week.

Kids are also welcome to come along and have a go and participants are asked to wear enclosed shoes.

Keep an eye on Cobargo Community Tree Project's Facebook page for more information about bookings.