Bloom Iron

What is ‘bloom iron’?

This material begins as iron rich rock that I collect from old mine sites deep in the forest of New England. These are then sorted, roasted, broken into pieces, and finally heated with fire in a clay furnace using charcoal as fuel. This process of alchemical transmutation removes impurities and changes the iron on a chemical level. It is born into its new form we call a “bloom”; a spongy mass of metallic iron and slag. This method is the same used by our ancestors for thousands of years to create forgeable iron from raw earth to make the first iron tools. Bloom-iron is distinct from modern steel and is not attainable through any other method. Each bloom is unique in its character and chemical properties. A balance of calculation, intuition, and observation is the basis of each step in the process.