Bio’s for the Demonstration in Las Cruces: February 09’

Craig May is actually a native New Mexican who was born in Deming, spent his early childhood in Carlsbad, and graduated from high school in Albuquerque. He grew up as a horseshoer’s son and through that became proficient in basic forging, making shoes and some tooling.

Craig had an artistic flair from an early age and discovered blacksmithing through an open invitation to the Horseshoers Association by SWABA (which was newly formed at that time). He attended the hammer-in at Russ Swider’s shop in Rowe and “that's when the lightening struck” Craig says, “I could not have been more impressed than if I had just seen a magician pull an elephant out of a tea cup!”

He states “I am mostly self-taught and inspired by everyone I ever came into contact with, and am still being inspired by people that I see working in the craft. Russ Swider and Tom Joyce were my first influences and probably are still with me today.”

Craig worked for a short period for Myers and Co in Aspen Co and Will Perry in Carbondale. He has owned Dragon forge LTD, his own forge, for 25 years doing high end commissions for private residences in the ski areas of Colorado. He has trained a number of smiths through employment in his shop and now works jointly with his son, Rory.

Jim Pepperl grew up on a small Nebraska farm and started working with metal as a maintenance and machine repair technician in a brickyard while he was attending the University of Nebraska. With the help of a folklore professor, he received an NEA grant to apprentice with an aged, but highly skilled and respected blacksmith/farrier in 1980. His relationship with L.A. Jorgenson inspired him to develop a backyard shop and in 1988 to take Frank Turley’s six week class in ironwork. That led to three and half years at Joyce Architectural Blacksmithing studio in Santa Fe where “I became aware of a whole new level of ironwork and very proficient with using a file.” Shortly after being hired by Tom Joyce he was asked to attend Francis Whitaker’s first three week advanced blacksmith course in Carbondale.

For the remainder of a decade in Santa Fe Jim co-owned a shop with Ward Brinegar. Their joint commissions included gates and rails for Outside Magazine offices, the Lensic Theater, the historic La Fonda Hotel as well as many residential projects. In 1998 he moved to Silver City, New Mexico where he has worked solo for the past ten years. He is celebrating 20 years of blacksmithing in New Mexico.