Hunter Valley blacksmith Will Maguire forges a career in art

That was 10 years ago, and he's still on that journey. While Maguire did return to his home at Elderslie in the Hunter Valley, he could never go back to the life he'd trained for.

Somewhere along the way of those travels he realised that he wanted to use his newly gained skills to a different end.

"I went travelling as a journeyman," Maguire says, referring to a medieval trade guild term that is still a thing in the smithing world. He ventured through the US, around England, Europe, Russia, Japan and into Ukraine, spending time with traditional and non-traditional blacksmiths.

"They were doing really interesting stuff, great design and architectural stuff," Maguire says.

"It was so different to what I'd ever done.

"When I came back there was nowhere I could work for who was doing that sort of thing. I had to go out on my own."

All he had was an anvil and a portable forge, but he didn't let that dissuade him. A friend lent him extra machinery to get him started.

And his parents agreed to a plan to turn an old dairy building on the family's six-generation farm into a studio forge.

"It's kind of cool to have that family connection to it," he says.

Architectural commissions started rolling in, as well as some requests that opened his mind further to the possibilities of his newly founded business. Maguire once made a sword for a circus performer, for slicing open a watermelon that was balancing on the belly of a woman wearing a bikini.

Then there was the job forging a sculpture of a hand held up in the "rock on" manner, along with other symbols of heavy metal music devotion, that were commissioned by "a guy building his own coffin".

In recent years, as his reputation for sculpted art has grown, Maguire has been chosen to create a public artwork for the Newcastle Steelworkers Memorial in Mayfield, as well as joining an international team of forgers creating a World War One peace memorial in Belgium.

Maguire says he is increasingly drawn to making work that allows him to think outside the practical parameters. It's the "intangible aspect that a sculpture can bring" which has brought him to undertake a residency at the ANU's sculpture school.

He won the residency position as his prize from the annual Lake Light Sculpture event in Jindabyne last year.

As well as the chance to "get my head around" those intangible thoughts without commissions in mind, Maguire says he's also keen on the practical side of being in the university's work space. "They have heaps of gear," he enthuses.

While his converted dairy studio is now a well-equipped forge, Maguire will never stop looking for the opportunities presented by access to even more machinery.

During his three-week residency Maguire will be creating maquettes, which will serve like 3D sketches and experimental pivots in the foundation of his future large sculptural works.

"I want to do a little bit of experimenting," he says.

As well as experimenting with new techniques, Maguire will be using the opportunity of being out of his own work environment to be more experimental with concepts. His focus is on getting into issues of contemporary Australia and multiculturalism, alongside expressing the nature of an ancient landscape.

"I want to explore the tension," Maguire explains.

"I think maybe if I can express it sculpturally, I can understand it better."

He will be using steel to represent modern industrial Australia along with pieces of very old ironbark and turpentine wood to speak of a land "that's been there forever".

Taking advantage of the university setting, Maguire will be testing chemical techniques that can speed up the formation of rust, trying to turn a very long process into a quick one.

When steel touches timber, he explains, over time blackened rust builds up in fissures of the wood grain.

"Because rust is bigger than steel, it expands," Maguire says, "the rust starts pushing.

"It's like a visual of tension."