Woman of Steel – Christine Figueroa

Arriving at Christine Figueroa’s historic farmhouse, it is at first difficult to figure out where, among the gathering of small, white barns, to find her. That is, until you hear the noise. It sounds like a cross between a careening locomotive and the deafening pounding a migraine might make if it suddenly became audible. BAM! BAM! BAM! Follow the cacophony, and that’s where you’ll find Figueroa.

Wearing a leather apron, and with a suede kerchief taming her wild auburn curls, Figueroa raises a metal hammer in her hand and slams it repeatedly, like a blaring metronome, on a small metal shape. Her worktable is an old tree stump, whose surface is marred by basin-like craters made from years of hammering. When she pauses from her labor, she carefully picks up the metal form, which now begins to resemble a graceful flower, and returns it to a blazing oven to heat it up again, so that she may pound it over and over.

Figueroa is an artisan blacksmith. She, along with her husband, Noel, operate Elm Grove Forge in Holicong, a blacksmith shop that specializes in unique decorative gates, railings, furniture, wall hangings, garden installations, and trellises that feature botanical designs. “We developed a look, which we call metal tapestries,” said Figueroa. “When we are commissioned, we visit a property and interpret the environment in metal. We are reinterpreting and weaving elements into a larger image, which becomes a tapestry of metal.”

For all the violence that goes into blacksmithing, Figueroa’s creations are surprisingly delicate. One large garden planter in their studio is generously adorned with metal irises, poppies, orchids and intricate pinecones. The craftsmanship is exquisite. And considering that each pinecone or flower takes about two to three hours to create, the work is clearly more passion than profession. “This is what I love,” said Figueroa. “I love that it’s tactile and you’re creating something beautiful by slamming it with a hammer. It’s a very precise art form, but you’re taking this hard piece of metal and through heat and brute force turning it into something elegant and fine.”

Figueroa grew up in Pennsylvania, Sweden and Belgium. Her first experience with blacksmithing came from her father, who did metal work as a hobby and taught his daughter to weld. Figueroa was hooked and started experimenting with metal sculpture as a teenager, but never had formal training. During her high school years in Europe she said she was struck by the permanence of metal work, especially in Paris, that was hundreds of years old yet still in near-perfect condition. “It’s the kind of art that endures,” she said. She later settled in Bucks County, near her mother’s family. She met her husband, a machinist by trade, when he was doing some work on her house. “I realized I was in love with him,” she said.  “So I told him and he said he was just waiting for me to realize it.” They married and started their blacksmith shop ten years ago.

Entering their shop is an exciting assault on the eyes. Dozens of hammers, metal tongs of every size, and countless metal pokers line the walls and tables. There are stolid, stocky anvils dating back to the 1700s, deer skulls hanging on the walls, and no heat. The rustic feel and the rows of large tools make it feel like part Colonial Williamsburg and part medieval dentist’s office. Yet for Figueroa, the anachronism is part of the appeal. “We work in an art form that is nearly extinct,” she said. “Every day we’re resurrecting an art form, preserving an art form.”

Preservation is, in fact, very important to Figueroa. She sits on the board of the Heritage Conservancy of Bucks County and believes strongly in protecting the historic wealth of this area. She and her husband also own and operate the Barley Sheaf Farm bed and breakfast, which they have lovingly restored. And if that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, she is also enduring teething… in triplicate. Figueroa has 8-month-old triplets and a 2-year-old toddler to keep her occupied when she’s not creating metal artwork, running a bed and breakfast, or preserving the county’s local heritage. Yet she seems to find a way to make it all work. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s three times the love and three times the heart. It’s exponentially more work and truly very exhausting, but we’re just very happy. I’m with my best friend and I’m in love with him, and we’re working together and there’s nothing better.”

At times, it feels hard to reconcile this mild-mannered mommy-and-me type, whose intelligent eyes peer from behind her square-rimmed glasses, with the woman who just moments ago was thrashing away, sparking metal on metal, with the force of an angry ogre. Yet all that physicality is just the process. “It does seem violent,” she said. “Actually, it’s creating something very delicate. It’s just an interesting path to get there.” It is this dichotomy that makes her all the more intriguing. Sure, she may be a mommy of four kids in diapers. But she is also the kind of girl who can say without reservation that she really knows how to make sparks fly (hammering hot steel will do that), regularly wears leather (as long as aprons and kerchiefs count) and is seriously into heavy metal.

For more information, visit: www.elmgroveforge.com.

Story by Lauren Eckstein