Michelle Parker FWCB

Michelle Parker is not only the first working female blacksmith to be admitted to the Livery but she is also the first blacksmith to have been presented with the Company’s bronze medal on the same occasion.
Michelle began her working life at the age of 16 as a stud groom and general farm worker including lambing, combine harvesting and milking. Realising she was unlikely to make a decent living and be able to buy her own house, she left that world for the care industry. At the age of twenty nine having achieved her goals to date, she decided on a career change but first went travelling for six months.
On her return she secured an apprenticeship as a farrier in Scotland. After working for four months with an excellent farrier Michelle decided that working upside down with smelly feet was not the life for her. However, during her time with the farrier she had started making items from steel as presents for friends during her spare time. This was the beginning of her interest in working with steel. She was greatly influenced by the work of the modernist American metal sculptor Albert Paley, never before realizing quite how beautiful steel work could be.
Returning to Worcestershire she searched for a college course that would provide her with the training she wanted. Finally she completed an HND course in Design Blacksmithing at Hereford College and while there was awarded a Licentiateship from the Society of Designer Craftsmen.
After finishing college she started her own Blacksmithing business, now established for over twenty years, initially supplementing her income with part time care work to support herself while the business grew. RHS garden shows provided an opportunity to display her work and she soon began attracting new customers. People began awarding her commissions for garden sculptures, gates, memorials and smaller internal works. Her business continued growing and then, several years after leaving college, she was approached to teach Blacksmithing at night classes in Hereford.
In 2004, Moreton Morrell College in Warwickshire approached her for help in its Blacksmithing department. A few teaching qualifications later, she is now Curriculum Leader and manages twenty forges at the college. She continues to accept a wide variety of private commissions.
Michelle has been on the Farriery and Blacksmithing committee of The Three Counties show for around 13 years. She enjoys teaching and strives to ensure that good standards of Blacksmithing are maintained, and imparts her enthusiasm and love of the art to her students. She is an ambassador for promoting Blacksmithing as a profession and students reliably report that she can be a hard taskmaster.

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