# Communities > Bladesmiths, Blacksmiths, Artisans and Professionals > Japanese-Style Sword Makers Cafe >  Japanese metalwork Courses.

## Ford Hallam

Greetings all, 

Some of you may know of me and my work but for those who don't allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ford Hallam and I am a Japanese trained, professional tsuba and tosogu-shi.

If you would like to see some examples of my work you'll find a fair selection on my website here, as well as links to a number of films that illustrate the sorts of techniques I use. You'll also find my professional credentials in the 'about' section.

This coming October and November I will, for the first time, be running 2 courses in my speciality of decorative Japanese metalwork. These will be held in New Hampshire, USA. The first course will run from 1st October 2013 until 28th of the same month. This will be an intensive 6 day a week immersion course.

Following this course we will be running a 6 day introductory course from the 4th November until 9th November 2013

We have suitable studio facilities for us to consider 8 participants and have 4 confirmed attendees thus far.

I should emphasise that the 4 week intensive course is probably not suitable for complete novices as the pace will be fairly brisk and very demanding. I intend to impart a pretty though grounding in basic technique as well as the foundation for developing the needed skills so a reasonable degree of hand skill would be a prerequisite. I'm looking at this as an intensive course for professionals. 

Total studio time will be 6 days a week, 9 to 5. Course cost $5000 plus about $300 for your basic tool kit.

The course will include chisel and other traditional tool handling skills, a variety of inlay techniques (wire and sheet, flush and raised) and general carving technique. We'll also cover the basics of non-ferrous metal patination.

I can't guarantee that you'll be able to make a tiger tsuba after the course but everything I do in this film will be covered (with the exception of the mercury gilding) and you'll be well on your way. 
This is the tsuba I made inh the film linked to above. 


If you're interested to see the sort of exercises I use to teach you can see some of my various private student's work here;

The 6 day introductory course for those who couldn't take a month out of their work schedules costs $1250 for the week. We'll cover the basics of chisel use and carving, inlay and touch on patination. And as with all my teaching we'll be dealing with aspects of the aesthetics of the work and developing good working technique and skills. Again we only take 8 students and places on this course are filling rapidly. 

If either of these courses is of interest and you'd like more details please drop me a note either through my website or via PM here. 

And please feel free to pass this notice around, someone else may need to see it, thanks.

Thank you for reading and kind regards,

Ford Hallam

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