Pike Lake Forge
About Us
We identify as aspiring blacksmiths and our areas of focus are: education, building our tool arsenal & forging works for exhibition. This allows us to hone our blacksmithing skills in order to sufficiently understand and command the iron, creating what our hearts desire.
Meet The Artists Behind Pike Lake Forge
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST, ASPIRING BLACKSMITH
Kristen "Krev" Krievin
Kristen Krievin is a meticulous smith who likens blacksmithing to the tempo and dynamics of drumming, which he has been playing since age 13. Krev has learnt with smiths Dave Hanson, Tom Latane, and Jeffrey Funk, to name a few. In the fall of 2016, Krievin travelled to Europe to partake in the creation of a forged cenotaph railing (to commemorate those who suffered in The Great War) in Ypres under master Iron sculptor, Roberto Giordani. Along his journey Krievin visited Czech Republic, Italy and Belgium, attending conferences, partaking in competitions, and forging connections with smiths from around the world.
Krev's vision is to enhance daily life through the reintegration of designed forgework. He aims to develop a visual language in iron through cultivating a true collaborative relationship with the material; the iron forging the smith, as much as the smith forging the iron.
Krev's Projects
Krev aims to develop a visual language in iron through cultivating a true collaboration with the material; being shaped by iron as much as he shapes it.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST, ASPIRING BLACKSMITH
Caroline Kajorinne
Caroline Kajorinne Krievin (HBFA) is a multidisciplinary artist and facilitative arts administrator. She is from Pike Lake, a Finnish settler community located 25 km north of Thunder Bay | Animikii Wekwedong, in Northwest Ontario. She is drawn towards blacksmithing as it is a creative practice that employs all of the elements—water, air, earth and fire. For Carol, the artform is a way to centre and strengthen relationship — with the natural world, with her body, and the themes that guide her work.
In 2012 she was awarded an OAC Northern Arts grant for the "Preserving Harold Project," which was part of a two-person exhibition "Preservation | Desire to Fill" at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery (2015), and toured through Manitoba Arts Network (2016-17). She is an active member of numerous groups/collectives, and is a founding member of Guild of Northwestern Ontario Metalsmiths’ (2013). Since 2018, she has been developing an arts collective, “mindful makers,” led for + by artists/makers with mental health and/or addiction experiences in Thunder Bay. Caroline instructs Intermediate Drawing at Lakehead University and has been learning blacksmithing since 2012, when she launched her creative side hustle: Pike Lake Forge.
