Bookings for this landmark event are now open and can be made via www.ypres2016.com. The delegate fee for participating blacksmiths is just £75, $110 or €95. Incredible value for what promises to be the forging event of the decade! To help the organisers PLEASE register as soon as possible: http://www.ypres2016.com/delegate-registration/.
The organisers are keen to make this spectacular event as inclusive and accessible to as many blacksmiths as possible, hence the single flat fee for the event to keep costs for everyone to a minimum. You’ll pay the same delegate fee if you attend for 1 day or all 6 days, so it makes sense to attend the whole event and make the most of a great opportunity to meet, chat and work with fellow smiths from across the world.
Participants will be able to work alongside one of thirteen international masters or one of twelve international open design competition winners in the production of twenty five railing panels. The star-studded global cast of panel designers includes Francisco Gazitua (Chile), Ambrose Burne (UK), Philip Vercammen (Belgium), Achim Kuhn (Germany), Alexander Sushnikov (Russia), Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin (Norway), Egor Bavykin (Russia), Paolo Bettoni (Italy), James Makely (USA), Jeffrey Funk (USA), Ondrej Gela (Czech Republic), Patrick Pelgroms (Belgium), Paul Mikula (South Africa), Peter de Beus (Belgium), Roberto Giordani (Italy), Sandra Dunn (Canada), Shona Johnson (Scotland), Steven Laurijs (Netherlands), Takayoshi Komine (Japan), Vladimir Sokhonovich (Russia), Will Maguire (Australia), Ivan Kadochnikov (Russia), Kheir Aker (Palestine), Jacob Haggerty (UK) and Ming Dong Feng (China).
Details of their designs are at http://www.ypres2016.com/design/masters-panel-designs/ The finished panels will surround a 7m Poppy Cenotaph to be installed at the German cemetery at Langemark-Poelkapelle near Ypres, for which site preparations are already well underway.
The event will also include children’s forging activities, as part of which some of the 2016 poppies that will cover the base of the Cenotaph will be forged. Others will be sold to the public.
Transitions Exhibition
Ypres2016 will also include a major international exhibition of contemporary forged ironwork, the theme of which is ‘Transition’, giving exhibitors the opportunity to explore the huge range of artistic possibilities suggested by the multiple transitions that the First World War brought about. The Transition exhibitors include Achim Kuhn (Germany), Fritz Kuhn (Germany), Agnieszka Mazur (Poland), Alan Dawson (UK), Ambrose Burne (UK), Arran Lang (UK), Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin (Norway), Brian Russell (UK) Charles Normandale (UK), Christian Vaughan-Jones (Wales), Daniel Moss (UK), Daniel Randall (USA), Dick Quinnell (UK), Dimitrii Volkov (Russia), Egor Bavykin (Russia), Erik Gjenden (Norway), Fred Truus (Norway), Gabriel Chaille (USA), Ivan Snauwaert (Belgium), Jeffrey Funk (USA), Joshua A. Goss (USA), Lesek Sikon (Poland), Lucille Scott (UK), Mathieu Pelletier (France), Naoto Uda (Japan), Nils Hint (Estonia), Patrick J. Quinn (UK), Peat Oberon (UK), Peter Smith (UK), Philip Vercammen (Belgium), Roberto Giordani (Italy), Ryszard Mazur (Poland), Sandra Dunn (Canada), Steffen Lempp (Germany), Steve Phillips (Australia), Takayoshi Komine (Japan), Tim Mackereth (UK), Tony Ingarfield (UK), Vladimir Sokhonovich (Russia) and Will Maguire (Australia). For more information, go to http://www.ypres2016.com/exhibition/.
Register
To help the organisers PLEASE register as soon as possible. Registered delegates will be contacted in due course and provided with a detailed programme of the forging sessions. Please note that here is no guarantee that registering as a delegate will secure the opportunity to work with a specific master or on a specific forging team. Individuals will be selected by ballot and will then be contacted by the Forgemaster with more details.
Unlike many similar forging events, there is no delegate fee for non-blacksmiths and their families. However, any donations in lieu of this, the purchase of a forged poppy or other commemorative items, will be very welcome. All donations will go towards funding the project and can be made via the ‘donate & buy’ button at www.ypres2016.com.
The delegate fee does not cover food and accommodation, but the event website has plenty of information on the different options available.
For further information on the event, please go to: www.ypres2016.com
