Spring 2021 After a quieter winter in the forge than normal, I am back running my blacksmithing day courses as per Government guidelines with one to one sessions for the people that have had their courses postponed from 2020. Ridgeway Farm Art Project is currently awaiting planning approval for both the entrance sign and the Community Orchard - I very much hope that these two aspects of the project will get moving soon! In the meantime, I am drying some larch boards ready to make bat boxes to go on oak posts in the hedgerows around the development. When community groups can safely and confidently meet again I still want to do community making sessions for residents to make their own bat boxes. I have been working on designs for another public art project in Oxford and very much hope this will be approved and I can make the lovely pieces I have designed. I was sent some great photos of Chippenham Town Bridge - a piece I designed many years ago which still looks great today!

Melissa Cole - Artist blacksmith with over 25 years experience based in the Pewsey Vale near Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Making hand made contemporary designed ironwork for the home and garden from forged steel and wrought iron. . Commissions taken for bespoke gates, railings and public and private sculptures. Private tutor running blacksmithing and sculptural metalwork courses from her forge in Wiltshire. https://linktr.ee/melissacole001