JACK WAYGOOD - ARTIST - BIOGRAPHY

Enrolling on the BA Artist Blacksmithing course at Hereford College of Arts. Jack discovered a range of interests spanning from architecture, engineering, nature, traveller culture and music, which still inspire and shape his work today.  

After graduating from HCA, he moved to Brecon, starting up Work of Iron in 2013 and worked freelance as a special effect’s technician for film and television. He collaborated on popular productions such as ‘Poldark’ and ‘Casualty’ and became fascinated with pyrotechnics. At the same time his passion for high quality craftsmanship was fuelled by the advanced traditional smithing course ‘design and forge work skills’ also at HCA, which he completed part time. 

In search of further progression, Jack then travelled as a journeyman blacksmith. He closed his business and worked in forges all over the UK learning a wide range of different approaches to his trade. In 2018 he was awarded a  Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust to travel in Europe. 

In Sweden Jack reconnected with his love for art at Steneby HDK (University of Gothenburg). This was a turning point in his work, he experimented with figurative sculpture and began developing his bizarre illustrative style, exploring the world of puppetry and performance. When rediscovering earlier influences from a variety of European artists and art forms, such as Jean Tinguely, Commedia Dell’ Arte and closer to home, L.S. Lowry. He also found new inspirations such as Sharmanka and studied the art of street protest which would play a huge role in his visual style and language.

‘The reason I got into working metal was to make art in the first place’.

In 2019 The British Artist Blacksmith Association and The Jinny Quinell Memorial Trust awarded Jack a bursary to continue his travels. He visited Japan, learning about blade smithing and bunraku then returned to Europe for an extended stint in industrial forging, tool making, architectural and artistic forge work. During his time in Germany he made contact with a blacksmith in New Zealand and found himself in Auckland working on the Lord of the Rings TV series the following summer.

Jack is now based in Scotland, He completed an MA in fine arts at Edinburgh College of Art and is now rooting himself in Leith and has officially started trading as Work of Iron. You can check out his progress by visiting his Instagram or Facebook pages.