Lansing — Douglas Thayer is a blacksmith. Not metaphorically or figuratively, not "in a sense," not as a nickname or a title he earned for being a hard worker in some white-collar profession, no.
"It is a lost art, but it's slowly coming back," Thayer said while heating a piece of steel.
Thayer raised a searing metal rod in the air, almost immediately judging its temperature and malleability before placing it on a gigantic black anvil. Without a second thought, he shredded the air with a swift and powerful hammer strike, which sent a dozen sparkling orange embers upward.
As the sound waves spawned from Thayer's emphatic pounding poured out over Washington Square from outside the tent of the Lansing Art Gallery, viewers witnessed a man with an overflowing passion for his work during his blacksmithing Forged Steel exhibition.
At that point, another thing about him becomes clear: Thayer is not just a blacksmith — he is an artist.
"I enjoy doing this," he said. "This is what I do, and what I enjoy most is the final creation of the art when it's done. When it works, it looks really good, and I'm happy with that."
Thayer started blacksmithing haphazardly. He remembered needing to bend a piece of steel, which he did by using a propane torch. As the metal pole bent, so did Thayer's perspective.
"When it bent … well that was all right," he said. "After that, I took a class at Tillers International in Kalamazoo and that pretty much got me started into it. I've been doing this full-time for a little over four years now."
Thayer went into detail about his unique, artistically sculpted art pieces that range in size and stature from something as simplistic as a candleholder to something as lavish as a giant garden arbor.
"It's functional art," he said. "Right now, I do a lot of furniture, tables, driveway gates. But I'm trying to get into 'art for art.'"
Lansing Art Gallery shop manager Barbara Whitney and executive director Catherine Babcock were thrilled to have the talented blacksmith put on a showcase in front of their gallery.
"He's a wonderful people person," Whitney said. "And I think it's wonderful for regular downtowners to see this. You can see how many people are going by and watching. Some of them will stop and some of them will just be exposed, which is important as well."
Babcock said she doesn't think blacksmithing is an art form many people see anymore.
"Just to see in an art fair or anything of that nature, it's very unusual to see steel forging like that," she said.
Lansing resident Rick Foster is one of Thayer's fans who just bought a large piece from the blacksmith's collection. Foster is drawn to the abstract charm of Thayer's work.
"Doug Thayer's stuff is wonderful," Foster said. "Three things … First, he is an excellent craftsman, and you don't become a good blacksmith overnight — you work at it. Second, he's a true artist. He doesn't just make bolts and nails and fire pokers. The stuff he makes is really artistic — it's pretty. And he's not very expensive. He's affordable — let's put it that way. Now that's a pretty good combination, I'd say."
This is the second time Thayer has performed at the Lansing Art Gallery. During the first exhibition, he reached out to a crowd of at least 200, Babcock said.
"It's a lot like a painter that really doesn't paint anything in particular," said Thayer. "An abstract painter just starts to paint. They just work, and if it works good, then you add a piece. What I'm doing here is pretty much the same thing. I'm just hammering to see what happens."
Thayer's works range anywhere from $35 on up. You can learn more at www.thayerhouse.com.
