Alumni Focus: Sam Pearce

Sam graduated from Hereford College of Arts in 2013 and since then has established his own business as a forged metal artist. He says:

“My time at the College gave me a secure, nurturing environment in which to experiment with new ideas and create my own vocabulary in forged steel. I left with confidence and a real sense of who I am as a forged metal designer, having exhibited work at New Designers in London and with a fully-costed business plan already prepared.

The majority of my work is derived from experimentation, the search for new forms and ways of manipulating hot steel. I think of myself as a problem solver and my designs generally start from my fascination with how to solve a particular problem, for example new ways of punching holes in steel or of connecting two flat surfaces without a connecting piece. The joy of this work is that I can continue to make things that really excite me. It is as much about pleasing myself as the client although fortunately so far people seem to have liked what I do!

One of my recent commissions was a piece of public sculpture at a nursery school in York. It takes the form of three abstracted human figures linked through three rings, representing the friendship and togetherness of the school with its sister schools, a prep school and a secondary school on the same site. The sculpture is about 2.5m tall and stands next to the school playground.  I have also just finished a commission for two gates in Kirkby, near Cleveland, North Yorkshire. The gates are at the entrances to a hedged vegetable patch. Each shovel is forged in one piece from 100 mm x 25 mm section and the gates are finished by galvanising and then T-washed.

My objective as a forged metal artist is to create architectural-scale steel work that is appropriate for a modern age. I will continue to work to commission and produce architectural work such as gates as well as smaller scale interior pieces”.

Del