LIKE many children Nate Robinson loved dinosaurs – and then as a teenager decided he became fascinated by blacksmithing, building his own forge heated using his mum’s hairdryer.
Now aged 27 he has combined the two fascinations and has created a three metre long, 240kg steel allosaurus which will be among the work he’s exhibiting as part of the Spring Fling open studios this weekend.
It’s the 21st annual Spring Fling, and the largest ever with 100 participating studios belonging to artists and makers of every imaginable kind, all across Dumfries and Galloway.
It’s the first fling for self-taught blacksmith, who has a forge in the 19th-century building which served as Thornhill’s original schoolhouse. There he creates everything from pendants and decorative pokers to sheep with wool created from old bedsprings.
He said: “I’m really looking to welcoming people to my forge, showing my work and giving demonstrations.
“I wanted to come up with a project to show potential customers the sort of work I could do, and I thought something big and impressive like a dinosaur would be perfect. I’d loved Walking With Dinosaurs on TV and remembered the allosaurus, so made that.
“I studied drawings of allosaurus fossils and worked them up on a computer so I could create one that was anatomically accurate, then made each piece by hand, beating out the metal on an anvil.”
The allosaurus took around 570 hours over a period of nearly six months to complete – he has made other dinosaurs including a triceratops.
And it’s not the only impressive piece he’s showing as to help visitors find the place, he has put a giant fork in front of the house.
Explaining, Nate said: “My mate and I were joking about what else I could make – in the past we’d made a six foot spoon, so we thought we’d go one better with a six metre fork. Then that seemed a bit small so it ended up as 7.3 metres of mild steel.”
For full details of all the studios see www.spring-fling.co.uk
*Photo by Colin Hattersley
