Southsea blacksmith Peter Clutterbuck who is behind huge Daedalus statue and Southsea Bandstand

The News, Portsmouth

With 51 years experience under his belt, Peter’s work is visible across the region – from the Falklands Arch in Fareham, to the Bandstand in Southsea.

Transcript

00:00Oh well I'm Pete Clutterbuck, I'm a blacksmith, self-taught after art school here in Portsmouth

00:18studying, making sculpture, then set this place up in 1970 and love every minute

00:29of it. Every job is a different job, there's huge variety and it is just so

00:38satisfying so to manipulate such hard material when it's hot and soft into

00:46something that is beautiful and functional. Thing is I've always loved

00:51work and it's proper work, you don't have to worry about whether it's

00:58right or not because you're doing it and you're making it right as you see it. So

01:04we haven't got, we do our own thing, we don't have people looking over our

01:09shoulder saying I want it done this way or that way, we choose how to make it so

01:14it's very much ours and we very much feel that we own it, we're proud of it, you

01:20know, it's something that's come from within us, it is a creative, a creative

01:27thing. The pride of actually making things is what gets me up in the

01:33morning because there's such satisfaction in making things and going to work and

01:39doing it. You know, it's not like sitting down at a desk. Ironically, I do all the

01:48paperwork here now and it's the worst part of the job by far, you know, but it is in

01:57decline and because the people just don't think of, if they can't buy it in B&Q, they

02:04think, oh well I can't get it, so they don't get it made. There's not that mindset

02:08anymore of people getting things made to order, which isn't that expensive and you

02:13get what you want. Yeah, I mean there used to be a blacksmith on every corner

02:19really, but there's a hard core of blacksmiths that do specialist work, right,

02:27artistic, you know, and a very skilled way and I suppose it can only continue as

02:37long as people want that sort of thing. I mean in restoration and stuff, well, you

02:42know, there's a limited amount of work there, but most people think it's a thing

02:49of the past, they don't even know what Anvil is anymore. Yeah, so yeah, it's

02:55luckily I think the internet has been superb for us because it shows people

03:00what what can be done and if people have the imagination and the will to do it

03:07then they'll commission it, but the work comes from all sorts of corners and we

03:15just, it just keeps coming for us, but we're very lucky to have been established

03:20along. It would be, yeah, it's hard to get established, but yeah, there is work out

03:29there, but not nearly enough.

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