Metal-morphosis Welder-blacksmith’s creations blossom out of scraps of copper, bronze and steel The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 2:00 AM CST Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025

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This article was published 11/01/2025 (616 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lynndon Novak can make anything from metal. Barbecue tongs, fire pokers, door handles, table legs… he’s crafted them all in his forge.

Using a hammer and an anvil he manipulates copper, bronze and steel, creating everything from ladles, bowls and scoops to dragonflies, frogs and flowers.

His copper roses are especially arresting; layers of petals, each cut and textured by hand, are overlapped and stacked to form an exquisite flower.

Each blossom — complete with sepal, stem and, should the occasion require, leaves and even thorns — is a perfect mimic of the real thing.

Gifted a permanence in Novak’s bouquets — the unyielding metal imbued with an ethereal beauty — they are forever in bloom.

Novak’s adventures in metal manipulation began in the early 2000s after he enrolled in a welding course.

“I’ve always liked to make things,” he says. “When I was learning to weld I would pull out random pieces from the scrap-metal bin and weld them together. A lot of it was just playing around twisting metal in different directions so when you shone a light at it, the shadows would look like they were dancing.”

His fascination with the material grew as he explored its capabilities.

Captivated by its changeable nature — solid at room temperature, yet malleable as playdough when heated — Novak’s explorations led him to blacksmithing, an art he is profoundly moved by.

“I fell in love with blacksmithing, and have been on a journey for the last eight years. It fascinates me that you can take this hard material and heat it up to a point where you can manipulate it in so many different ways. It is actually amazing,” he says.

The nature of the process, which requires engaging both his scientific mind and his artistic sensibilities, has led Novak to spend hours working at his forge.

“There is quite a bit of math involved in metalworking like this. You have to understand the deformation of the metal — how much you have to calculate when you deform it, how it moves in other areas. It is a science,” he says,

He’s in his forge after his family has gone to bed, often staying until five in the morning on weekends to work on different techniques and practise his skills.

Novak is currently “playing around” with forging acorns and oak leaves which he incorporates into hooks he gifts to friends as birthday or wedding presents.

He gives away most of his art — “I don’t make an income from this. I do it for love,” he says, but recipients of those gifts place orders for more of his work, prompting him to seriously consider this work as a career.

“I wanted to keep this as a hobby for the longest time, but I would very much like it to be my job. I haven’t put myself out there to get commissions but it’s something I would like to start,” he says.

The dream is to make larger flowers for public art — he made one years ago, a large otherworldly bloom, which he donated to the town of Snow Lake (the community he hails from) — and eventually to host classes to teach others.

“I want to show them the process, get people interested in working with metal, even if it is something they do once. Aside from stone, metal is one of the most long-lasting materials we have on our planet. The things I make are more likely to be still around in 300 years, and, if I make them well, can be passed down through (generations of) families,” he says.

Images of Novak’s most recent work can be found on his Instagram account @abstract_blacksmith. He is currently working on a website.

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca