LipkoIronWorks is Atlanta Georgia based family company specializing in wrought and cast ironworking. Work include both interior and exterior gates, rails, fences, & balconies. Clients include many worldwide celebrities.
Background information on wrought and cast ironworking:
Wrought ironwork ( wrought ironworking ) is forged by a blacksmith using an anvil. The earliest known wrought ironwork ( wrought ironworking ) are beads from Jirzah in Egypt dating from 3500 BC and made from meteoric iron by a blacksmith with the earliest use of smelted iron dates back to Mesopotamia.
From the medieval period, use of wrought ironwork ( wrought ironworking ) for decorative purposes became more common by a blacksmith. Wrought ironwork (wrought ironworking) was used to protect doors and windows of valuable places from attack from raiders and was also used for decoration as can be seen at Canterbury Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris. Armour also was decorated, often simply but occasionally elaborately by a blacksmith.
From the 16th century onwards, wrought ironwork ( wrought ironworking ) became highly ornate especially in the Baroque and Rococo periods. In Spain, elaborate screens of iron or rejería were built in all of the Spanish cathedrals rising up to nine metres high.
In France, highly decorative iron balconies, stair railings and gateways by a blacksmith were highly fashionable from 1650. Blacksmith Jean Tijou brought the style to England and examples of his work can be seen at Hampton Court and St Pauls Cathedral. Wrought ironwork was widely used in the UK during the 18th in gates and railings in London and towns such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US, ironwork features more prominently in New Orleans than elsewhere due to its French influence.
As iron became more common, it became widely used for cooking utensils, stoves, grates, locks, hardware and other household uses. From the beginning of the 19th century, wrought iron ( wrought ironworking ) was being replaced by cast iron ( cast ironworking ) due to the latter’s lower cost to a blacksmith. However, the English Arts and Crafts Movement produced some excellent work in the middle of the 19th century. In modern times, much modern wrought ironwork ( wrought ironworking ) is done using the pneumatic hammer and the acetylene torch. A number of modern sculptors ( blacksmith ) have worked in iron includingPablo Picasso, Julio González and David Smith.
Cast iron ( cast ironworking ) is produced in a furnace stoked with alternate layers of coking iron then poured into molds. After the iron cools off, the sand is cleaned off. The Chinese blacksmith were the first to use cast iron from the 6th century AD using it as support forpagodas and other buildings.
It was introduced into Europe by the 15th century with its main decorative uses being as firebacks and plates for woodburning stoves in Germany, the Netherlands and Scanindavia. By the end of the 18th century, cast iron ( cast ironworking ) was increasing used for railings, balconies, banisters and garden furniture due to its lower cost to a blacksmith.
When searching on the web, this type of work is also often refered with the following terms: wrought ironwork or wrought ironworking, metal, atlanta, blacksmith, georgia, ga, anvil, Cast ironwork, Cast, balconies, gates, rails, fences, balcony, gate, rail, fence.