It's hard to believe, but the Izmaylovo Vernissage, an outdoor arts and crafts fair in Moscow, has a real smithy. Every weekend the blacksmith who runs it, Viktor Mizgirev, gives classes in turning drab metal into something a lot more elegant. He has several apprentices; accidental passers-by, newlywed couples, and foreign tourists are also welcome at his smithy.
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Anton Agarkov
It's hard to believe, but the Izmaylovo Vernissage, an outdoor arts and crafts fair in Moscow, has a real smithy. Every weekend the blacksmith who runs it, Viktor Mizgirev, gives classes in turning drab metal into something a lot more elegant. He has several apprentices; accidental passers-by, newlywed couples, and foreign tourists are also welcome at his smithy.
Anton Agarkov
Viktor was born in the northern Russian city of Velikiy Ustyug, the home town of Ded Moroz, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. Viktor was a woodcarver before becoming a smith. "I once realized that I needed a special metal tool for my carving work," he says...
Anton Agarkov
"I couldn't find it in the shops, so I turned to the local blacksmith. It was the sowing season, so the smith was busy repairing various agricultural hardware. He said, however, that he would let me use his smithy to forge the tool I needed myself." After that Viktor began to work more and more in the smithy, got his own tools, and started to take paying customers.
Anton Agarkov
Three and a half years later he moved to Moscow - but the blacksmith he came to work for said he was only good enough to become an apprentice. Undeterred, Viktor stayed, and spent nine months learning the tricks of the trade from the master smith. "I learned how to make baroque and modernist items. I was taught how to really see the metal. I developed my own style."
Anton Agarkov
"Metal lets you do all kinds of things. If you're friends with metal, it will let you shape it into anything at all. But if you come to the smithy in a bad mood, nothing comes out right, even a simple nail will come out crooked," Viktor says.
Anton Agarkov
Victor takes part in historical re-enactment festivals, and helps archaeologists to understand what kind of uses the items they unearth could have been put to; this is called "experimental archaeology". He also plans to partner with a goldsmith to make jewelry - but he is still a blacksmith, first and foremost.
Anton Agarkov
Viktor says he has taught the basics of his craft to people from all walks of life. Some of them had no relevant background at all; others hardly needed any teaching. "I once had an American banker here in the smithy...
Anton Agarkov
...His father and grandfather were also bankers. He said it was the second time in his life he saw a hammer. I also had a member of the Russian parliament here, who wasn't handy with tools at all. But crafting something with our own hands is an excellent way of developing our creative thinking. When a person starts making something with his hands, his head starts to work in a different way as well."
Anton Agarkov
"I offer special master classes for newlyweds. The groom makes the bar for a horseshoe, and the bride shapes it into the actual shoe. That's just another way of saying that the husband builds the foundation for family life, and the wife gives it a proper shape, and makes it beautiful."
Anton Agarkov
Viktor has two kids. Both are too young to bring them to the smithy; but the eldest, who is now three, has already picked his favorite toy: a nine-pound hammer. "I have no idea how he is able to lift it; I thought even the three-pounder would be too heavy," the blacksmith laughs.
