My name is John Page, founder of Nine Worlds Workshop.
I am a blacksmith, bladesmith, woodworker, and cartographer. I have a deep passion for working with my hands to create objects both of art and of use, things that evoke the processes from which they were made. Whether by fire or pen, there is beauty in the way this world, when born from the hands which traverse it, by those who take care to grow its culture, history, and lore. From the artefacts of our ancestors, their sagas and songs, I draw my inspiration for the things which I create and material in which they are born. From ironwork to swords, instruments and maps, I look toward the styles, techniques, and mysteries of the past to create pieces of a larger mythos.
Over the past ten years, I have been fortunate to learn alongside friends, brothers, sisters, and elders in the craft. From forging to smelting to brewing to study and examination of original artefacts, the product of my work is the culmination of not one journey across craftsmanship but of many.
Here, you will find a glimpse into my work and the path I have taken into its exploration.
John Page
Nine Worlds Workshop
Since 2016 I have been a blacksmith in California’s historic Old Town Sate Park, serving as a public educator, demonstrator, and reproduction ironworker to replace and repair metalwork throughout the park. It is largely in this capacity that I have honed my skill in functional blacksmithing and 1850s-1860s colonial technique. The forge in Old Town, pictured above, is wonderfully equipped with antique tools and the collective patina representative of a world sixteen decades ago. Beginning in 2021, I have had the privilege of serving in a similar capacity in the historic forge in Yosemite National Park.
In February-March of 2020 I was part of a team which traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina in an effort to bring knowledge and refine skill in classical metalwork. Since the 1930s, the craft has all but ceased to exist. The international effort to bring this skill back to the city began in 2016 and has since grown to a healthy local trade that serves to restore and maintain the historic architecture throughout the city. As part of the 2020 team I taught the techniques of hammer making and the associated tooling, heat treatment, grinding, and handling.
Although, in recent years, I have focused on ironwork, my beginnings are in woodworking. First, as a boywer and much later as a luthier, I have been practicing the trade for nearly 15 years that has evolved into general fine woodworking. Complementary to making in wood, I worked as a sawyer to produce lumber out of urban forests, salvaging wood that is otherwise destined for decomposition in landfills. From colossal Torrey Pines and Eucalyptus upwards of 9 feet in diameter down to trees only a few years old, they are milled and dried and returned to a useful life which continues to provide enrichment and carbon sequestration.
Following the pandemic and reopening of global travel, the Argentina group and others embarked on a continuation of that same growth of the international community. In 2022 we travelled to the Catalonian region of Spain to meet with fellow blacksmiths, and in 2023 to Japan. Together, we have several teams to compete in a worldwide competition in Stia, Italy, followed by similar exploration of local artisans, museums, and historic ironwork.
Throughout the many years of craftsmanship, of learning and teaching, it is the collaboration and the fellowship which brings me the greatest joy. In being able to pass on what I have learned from those so generous to help me along the way, in working alongside friends and mentors, there is so much depth and colour to the traditions of what it means to work by hand. It is my greatest privilege to share with you this journey and the road down which it leads.
