MetallDesign international. Hephaistos-Jahrbuch / MetallDesign international 2023

Master blacksmith and sculptor Matthias Larasser-Bergmeister (Germany) can look back on a successful period of productive work - and he is still active and successful. He learned the blacksmith's craft from the renowned master craftsmen Manfred Bergmeister and German Larasser. Before taking his master's examination, he went to Dick Quinell in England and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich until he obtained his sculptor diploma. His oeuvre is wide-ranging, designing and making contemporary furniture, grilles, gates and railings as well as trend-setting church furnishings.Dmitrii Volkov was born in 1972 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He now lives and works in the USA. As a blacksmith and sculptor, he has been primarily making art objects since 1996. He designs and makes sculptures and jewelry from steel, silver, copper, bronze, wood and glass. But his portfolio also includes artfully designed objects of daily use. Each work - its execution, its effect, its position in the overall structure - is thought through down to the last detail with extraordinary sensitivity. Volkov likes to compare objects to people: Partially imperfect, but constantly striving for perfection.What can be the design-craft profile of a monastery forge? This is a question that Fr Abraham, head of the monastery smithy at Königsmünster Abbey (Germany), often asks himself. After his theology studies, he had begun training in the monastery's own blacksmith's workshop and took over its management after passing his master's examination in 2006. At present, the workshop team consists of eight people. The boundaries between pastoral care, theology and craftsmanship as well as design always open up new subject areas, such as contemporary religious signs, modern grave design or church furnishings. Jim de Missolz is often called the "last blacksmith of Paris", and indeed he has mastered some craftsmanship skills that have become rare in his native France. A locksmith and metalworker, he