Michael Lillas

Michael Lillas is a retired barrister who prior to retirement took up blacksmithing as a hobby.

The theme in all Michaels work is recycling steel products as much as possible. Horseshoes gas bottles and rail way pegs being the main staple for his creations. Horseshoes lend themselves to being made into spheres in which there is a sub theme of flowers of different sizes and shapes with an attempt to create a picture in the areas between the flowers. The other image is that of a horse head as the ears eyes and nose can be shaped from the smaller horseshoes and the flat surfaces that appear in a horse head can be made by smiting the horseshoe in a forge and straightening it out. The surfaces are left to rust and after a while in the elements the colour blends into one of rusty iron work. Gas bottles are used to make flowers, with only two samples one near each exhibit.