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My body of work is to show heritage of the area that I spent my childhood in and to create a tribute to all the hop farmers present and past. With the forged artefacts that I’ve created I want people to appreciate and celebrate the act of hop farming and hard work that goes into every pint of beer that is sold across the UK.
Through my forged artefacts I want to show the heritage of hop farming in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The foundation of my project comes from memories of my childhood with my nan picking hops and me being around the farms; this led me to finding out more history about the old ways and modern ways of hop farming. From research and going to local hop farms from where I live, some of which my nan worked for, I gathered information and pictures of the tooling and measurements allowing me to create replicas.
During the process of creating the forged artefacts, it showed to me how diverse the tooling is within this sector of agriculture. I found it interesting going through traditional practices and breaking down how some of the tools were constructed from photos and learning about the significance of how specialised every tool is to do its job to the best of its ability. I etched and stamped names from the Bromyard district of hop farms where I live into the artefacts, giving the forged goods an identity.
