Exploring Futures: Jason Nickson

Published on 16.07.15

Exploring Futures is a module for our second year students. The module has two parts – students need to seek out work experience and also reflect on their future after the course and complete a personal/professional research document. Jason says: “For my Exploring Futures module I visited three different Blacksmiths, each of which approached their

Exploring Futures is a module for our second year students. The module has two parts – students need to seek out work experience and also reflect on their future after the course and complete a personal/professional research document.

Jason says:

“For my Exploring Futures module I visited three different Blacksmiths, each of which approached their craft in very different ways. An interesting observation from these visits was that, despite their differences, the greatest factors affecting their businesses success was their location and contacts.

Michael Budd, in Sligo, worked heavily with traditional skills but due to his remote location he struggled to find clients who could afford his work. Martin Carter, in Oxford, was also struggling to build his business and workshop but was on an upward curve by gaining contacts to do restoration work for the Oxford colleges. Michael Jacques, also in Oxford, has a booming business, with a long list of returning clients, which I suspect derives from the contacts he could have got from the family when his business was developing.

I found the work placements valuable in many ways but mostly I enjoy the opportunity to experience blacksmithing outside of education and I believe that its helped to inform my practice and career goals”.

Del