What to Consider When Commissioning a Piece of Ironwork

Bespoke Kitchen Shelving Unit

Over the years I’ve taken on a wide range of ironwork commissions, from fireside tools to architectural details to the occasional more unusual request. Commissioning a piece of ironwork can be a brilliant experience, but only if you know what you’re stepping into and what you want from the end result. With commissions now open again on a selective basis, I thought it might be helpful to outline a few things worth considering before you get in touch.

Start with the purpose

The most successful commissions are the ones with a clear purpose. Is the piece purely functional, mainly decorative, or a bit of both? Knowing what you want the object to do and where it will live helps enormously when it comes to design. A hand-forged fireside tool, for example, has very different practical demands from a sculptural bracket or a set of handles for a kitchen.

Know your space

If your commission relates to a specific room or architectural detail, try to have measurements ready, or at least a sense of scale. Even a rough understanding of the space, materials, lighting and surroundings can guide the entire design process. Ironwork shouldn’t sit awkwardly in a room; it should feel as though it belongs there.

Budget and expectations

I always encourage people to think of commissioned work as a collaboration. There’s a balance between your ideas and what the material, the tools and the forge will allow. The time it takes to forge a piece by hand is closely linked to its complexity, and that’s what determines cost. My day rate is built around this time and process, and while I don’t expect you to know the exact number of days your idea requires, it helps to come in with a realistic sense of what hand-forged work entails.

Forged Ironwork Spider Web Screen

Visual references can help

I don’t copy other makers’ work and I don’t reproduce off-the-shelf designs, but visual references can still be incredibly useful. They give me a sense of the atmosphere you’re after; clean lines, heavy texture, light touches, sculptural curves, without dictating the exact form. A few well-chosen images can often say more than paragraphs of description.

Trust the process

Forging is not a digital process. The material has its own personality, and the final piece always carries the marks of its making. If you’re commissioning hand-forged work, the best thing you can bring to the table is openness. Some of the most rewarding pieces I’ve made came from clients who trusted me to interpret their ideas through the lens of my own style.

When to reach out

If you have a project in mind and you think it might suit my approach, I’ve put together a page that explains the types of work I take on, how the process works, and what to expect from the practicalities. You can find more detail on my Commissions page. And if you’re not quite ready but would like to start a conversation, that’s always welcome too.