Patrick Maher

Patrick Maher has worked with metal for 25 years as an artist and blacksmith. Based in Seattle, he and his wife Caryn Badgett created Blu Skillet Ironware, as small business and storefront, making hand-forged carbon steel pans (which are 99% iron), as a way to share the pans and other things they make. They introduced the pans at the Ballard Farmers Market in the spring of 2013. The community was amazingly supportive and has been an integral part of the business ever since. They continue that engagement back at the shop with open studios and demonstrations of the process. To watch a simple piece of carbon steel disc and steel bar turn into a beautiful pan is pretty magical. 

Blue Skillet Ironware has become so successful that they can only be purchased in lottery system.

Patrick Maher continues to create his own art independently of Blu Skillet Ironware.

artist statement

The methods that I use in making my work create a playful juxtaposition of subject and materials to create pieces that have both a sense of humor and serious commentary on the state of society.

Many of my pieces call to the viewer to take a closer look inside, into a different world that sets the stage for the imagination and allows ample room for interpretation. In much of my work, I'm not trying to make a clear statement as much as trying to create an atmosphere or mood that fills the viewer with a sense of wonder and questioning.

My latest works add a historical context to the pieces, using ancient and mythological subjects built with industrial age methods to create a jolting contrast of conventional thought about how the objects were built and their true place in history.

I believe that we live in an age of such rapidly changing technology that often the line between the past any present can become eschewed to the point where it is sometimes indistinguishable. I want my work to ride that line of timelessness.