What We Do
Forging metal art for more than 30 years
Hello, I am Jason Bowman. I began my career in metals with an apprenticeship in 1988 with Craig Kaviar. I studied welding and machine tools in high school and pursued a tool and die apprenticeship briefly. Beginning in 1992 I produced and sold iron furniture and hardware from my small home shop. Attending classes and workshops around the country and pursuing a Millwrights apprenticeship at this time as well, i took on the role of president of the Kentucky Blacksmiths Association. I also was demonstrating black smithing at Farmington Historic homes at this time. I worked mainly in small items lamps, tables, benches, candle holders, ect. at this time as my workspace was quite limited. In 1998 i closed my business and went traveling cross country working in some large iron works shops doing architectural projects. I simply did not have the space for these sorts of projects in the old building. In 2001, after my son was born, I returned to Louisville to be nearer family. Working for three years in a fabricating shop here allowed me to work on larger projects while supporting a family. In 2004 I made an attempt to restart my own shop, managing to work around my space issues on several large handrail and gate projects. By the years end it was clear that it was just not practical at that time to continue, and in the spring of 2005 I gained my journeyman credentials from UBC Millwrights local 1031. For the following 10+ years I traveled working in every conceivable type of manufacturing plant. this kept me away from home a lot leading me to take a series of jobs doing industrial maintenance, mostly in food plants. In 2017 I moved to Elizabeth Indiana. Just across from Louisville, I now have a building with the space for some larger projects. In 2019 I left my maintenance job and began offering black smithing classes out of the new shop. 2020 saw me ready to start working towards handrails and gates again, when everything shut down. Now, hopefully we are finally re emerging and ready to get started, yet again.