Smith Shop is an artistic metalworking studio that creates functional and ornamental metalwork for private clients, institutions, architects, and designers. They specialize in architectural ironwork, historic restoration, furniture, hardware, housewares and ecclesiastic objects. Working from a deep expertise in historic ironwork and architecture, Smith Shop employs a traditional approach to the design and construction of their works, which are often produced for architecture in historic contexts. Their works have been recognized for excellence through numerous awards and publications, and reside in public and private collections across the United States. Smith Shop’s collaborative process utilizes the talents of two senior partners along with a committed group of talented metalsmiths and apprentices.
If you would like to work with us, drop us a line at info@smithshop.com.
Gabriel Craig
Co-Owner, Metalsmith
Gabriel has been a metalsmith for 23 years, starting his career as a jeweler and gradually becoming interested in larger and more varied metalworking techniques. In graduate school Gabriel studied architectural history, a passion that would guide his career. Since devoting himself to blacksmithing in 2010, his work has focused on decorative and functional ironwork. With the spirit of an ornamentalist, Gabriel’s work finds inspiration in carved decoration from the gothic and gothic revival eras. More recently, he has been investigated English Georgian ironwork forms after study in England.
Gabriel is an active writer and architectural historian and is recognized internationally among his peers as an expert in historic ironwork. He has lectured extensively on the subject of historic ironwork and is currently at work on a book about architectural ironwork in his native Detroit. In addition to his scholarship, he is also the president of the Historic Blacksmith Conservancy, a non-profit organization that promotes education in traditional ironwork. Through his work with HBC he has helped to preserve the Samuel Yellin Tool Collection and create immersive programming to educate his peers about historic ironwork. Their 2nd Biennial Symposium will be held in New York City in the fall of 2026.
Gabriel received his BFA in Metals/ Jewelry from Western Michigan University in 2006, and his MFA in Jewelry and Metalworking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009.
Amy Weiks
Co-Owner, Metalsmith
In 2004 Amy discovered metalsmithing and never looked back. Like her earlier career in photography and printmaking, metalsmithing is steeped in technical processes, but working in metal allowed her to move into three-dimensions— creating new opportunities to explore form, volume, and function. Amy excels at appropriating reductive utilitarian forms and imagining them in new lyrical and poetic schemes. That is to say, she can distill the essence of archetypal forms and infuse them with new beauty and creativity. Her innate sense of form and composition, her sensitivity to line quality, and deft skill with a hammer are the defining hallmarks of her work. Amy has shown her artwork nationally and internationally and it resides in public and private collections throughout the United States.
After years of observing historic ironwork and the high fidelity achieved in laminated wrought iron, Amy set out to source a more suitable material for artistic and ornamental forging than the widely available mild steel products in the United States. The result of years of research and supply chain investigation led Amy to co-found Heritage Iron Company— a supplier of low carbon steel for use in traditional and artistic forgework.
Amy received her BFA from Western Michigan University in 2004, and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2012.
Samuel Patmon
Apprentice Metalsmith
After careers in logistics and HVAC, Sam found his passion in metalworking. Inspired by the challenge of making architectural metalwork, Sam joined Smith Shop in 2024 as an apprentice. Since taking up blacksmithing he has become proficient at the forge and now regularly teaches classes and travels to participate in demonstrations. Sam also has a strong interest in machining. He is a member of the Michigan Artist Blacksmith’s Association and has been an assistant in the iron studio at the Penland School of Crafts. His thirst for knowledge and enthusiasm for blacksmithing is contagious.
