When the blacksmiths of today got an opportunity to use machines, they actually made a cottage industry of their work. A Belsat.eu reporter visited the region of Hlybokae where the tradition of hand blacksmithing is still alive and where the revival of this craft began.
In the 90s blacksmithing was at its zenith in Belarus. Hlybokaye-based blacksmiths Alyaksandr and Dzyanis Dubina, a father and a son, were due in no small part to it. The International Blacksmithing Festival, the first-ever event of such kind in the contemporary history of Belarus, took place here, in Hlybokaye.
According to Alyaksandr Dubina, if a craftsman puts the energy of his body and soul into each work and all its elements are made by hand, such product will be unique. Stamping and machines turn blacksmithing into ordinary manufacturing, he believed.
Alyaksandr Dubina died in 2003, but son Dzyanis took up his lifetime project. He notes that fewer and fewer people gets interested in blacksmithing nowadays.
However, Dzyanis can make real masterpieces even of a metal rod in the father’s forge.
The blacksmith regrets that there are not so many big orders. Indeed, handwork takes more time and effort; consequently, a price is higher. It is difficult to compete with blacksmiths who apply cold forging technology, Dzyanis says.
The portrait of Alyaksandr Dubina in Dzyanis’ parental house.
The tombstone over the father’s grave.
One can see a wrought-iron coach and a lot of smaller elements (torches, flowers, benches) near the park at Yakimovich Manor.
belsat.eu