ABANA Featured Forgings
Online Exhibition of Forged Work
Favorites of 2025
We asked the blacksmith community to show us their favorite pieces forged during 2025. In this exhibition, you’ll see a wide array of projects and styles represented. This online exhibition is a curated showcase of selected works. Some of the entries received will be posted on our social media accounts over the coming weeks and months. Thank you to all the participants in this Featured Forgings Online Exhibition.
On view through July 1, 2026.
Somatism Nr. 5: You Make My Heart Sing (detail)
Benjamin Kjellman-Chapin
Somatism Nr. 5: You Make My Heart Sing. Photos by Eric Garaventa.
This is the 5th installment in a series of works giving concrete form to idioms concerning body parts. This particular work is interactive and sings when the viewer sets the heart in motion by pushing it. This is achieved by way of a digital sound component with a speaker, powered by a rechargeable lithium battery hidden within the heart itself. The sound unit and compositions were made by Joshua Curry. The lower portion of the heart is forged from wrought iron, and the upper half is mild steel. The red color was applied by Monica Kjellman-Chapin. The heart itself is 12″ tall. Here is a video of the heart singing on Instagram.
Brendan Keenan
Along Lake Michigan. 18” h, forged and fabricated iron and copper. This piece is a continuation of a series of vessels that I consider “drawings in metal.” The series addresses how experiences in a particular location are saved and will ultimately affect the course of future thought processes.
Lumen Mentis. (detail above) “Lumen Mentis” was not only part of the sculpture competition at the Stia Biennale in September 2025; it was also the winning piece. The work is forged from scrap aluminium, with the inner layer covered in brass leaf—an inner surface that reflects the idea of lumen mentis, the light of the mind, emerging from within rather than being imposed from the outside. In the making process, the material was treated as an active counterpart: its own will and behavior were allowed to guide the form, letting it flow in the direction it demanded. Forging aluminium proved particularly challenging because, unlike steel, it does not begin to glow when heated and can melt away very quickly. This fragility became an integral part of the process, reinforcing the tension between control and loss that underlies the work. The sculpture weighs 20 kg and measures 1300 × 800 × 700 mm.
Richard Rulf
Trophies for the World Fly Fishing Championship. To design these trophies, I chose an abstract form that is the materialization of an allegory that I will try to bring to you in this author’s text. Fly fishing is also my hobby, and I perceive this fishing discipline as incredibly graceful and elegant, which is why I am convinced that these cups should evoke the same. The feather that plays the main role in this work is a minimalistic clue to the essence of this fishing technique, therefore the type of material would change depending on the location. The stone pedestal has this atypical shape for one essential reason, namely that it is supposed to symbolize the flow of the river. The choice of material itself is not accidental; it is a material that is firmly connected to the river. Last but not least, the hook corresponds in proportion to the hook from the Hanák company, specifically the H-230 type.
Casey Hebel
With These Hands. Steel and stainless steel. 48″x32″x2″ – 16″x32″x6″
This piece was my undergraduate capstone project at ACBA. It brings together my blacksmithing knowledge, missteps, and influences into one moment. In many ways, I see it as a self-portrait of who I am as a craftsperson. It also shows what the craft can achieve and what is possible through my own hands and my time. This piece folds out twice: the first fold is on a standard hinge, and the second on a cantilever hinge, allowing the design to take on several forms without any lines ending abruptly.
Richard Rulf and Matyáš Habermann
Monument of Zdeňku Rykrovi. Zdeňek Rykr was a prominent Czech and European graphic artist and illustrator. To commemorate this year’s anniversary of the birth and death of Chotěboř native Zdeněk Rykr, we created a monument in the form of a bench, thus respecting the established tradition in our city of creating useful monuments to famous natives.
This is a bench with seating areas on both sides. This solution seems practical to me due to the space it adds, and from an ideological point of view, it has great significance in the form of a lifelong connection to his parents, with whom he corresponded many times from different corners of the world. On one side there is a seating area for two people and on the other side a seating area for one person. When the bench is “filled”, its users will become part of the story and thus complement the overall concept of the bench. They will underline the close connection that existed between them, regardless of the distance caused by Mr. Rykr’s travels. The journey is an important component of his life. It partly touches on what is most essential in life: Birth, life, and death. He was born in the station building in Chotěboř, the first stop on the journey, both as a new life and as a personal journey, but also, and mainly, as a birth in a building whose function is firmly connected to the meaning of travel. Another touch with the journey for me is his work trips to exotic destinations, which inspired him and, to a certain extent, helped his fame. That was life. The last and definitive touch resonating with the word journey was his death, which he committed by jumping in front of a train.
Cinquedea Sword. A sword forged and designed using geometric principles. Damascus blade is made from 1075, 15n20, and 1045 steel, featuring multibar construction with twist and ladder pattern. Every aspect of this sword is designed to encapsulate a medieval cathedral and features symbology relating to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The scabbard features brass cathedral windows and reflects upon the same themes as the sword.
Submit your work for our next online Featured Forgings exhibition, “Making Waves”.