In his small blacksmith shop set in the woods off Sooke, Ryan Fogarty embraces a century-old machine and method to create pans that span the globe.
A piece of steel carefully applied to the machine, centres it, then embarks on a dance of pressing and turning and calculating – Fogarty spins a pan.
His love may have seeded as a teen, working at Sooke Regional Museum and experiencing the skill and craft of blacksmithing. But it remained a hidden aspiration.
“If you had asked me in those high school years, if i would do anything with any trade I would say ‘no way’,” he said from his Leechtown Blacksmith shop in Otter Point.
“But here we are … I genuinely appreciate that I’m able to take advantage of working for myself with my hands, creating stuff that people get a kick out of and enjoy.”
