Photo: Valdek Laur
EKA Raja Street Outdoor Studio
Start Date:
10.09.2026
Start Time:
18:00
End Date:
10.09.2026
On September 10, the Estonian Academy of Arts (EAA) will host a spectacular finale of the iron casting course at the Raja Street outdoor studio, where metal will be cast and creative and technological experiments completed during the course will be presented. Over 40 students and professionals from Estonia and abroad will participate in the international course.
Iron casting is primarily common in heavy industry, but despite its complexity, artists and designers are also involved in it. In the pursuit of efficiency and clear definitions, such areas between the highly standardized and the creative-experimental tend to disappear, but in order to maintain cultural integrity, it is important to keep these spaces – to maintain existing competencies and at the same time strengthen diversity.
The course, which will take place from August 31 to September 11, will explore iron casting technologies at different levels – starting with learning about iron casting as a basic metalworking technology and its various processes, and moving on to metal alloys, technological possibilities and creative experiments on different scales.
The course is attended by students from EKA and other higher education institutions, as well as professionals from Estonia and abroad. Among the participants are students from Germany, Sweden, Norway and Japan, as well as students from EKA’s jewellery and blacksmithing, craft studies and contemporary art departments, and Erasmus students. Professionals have come to the course from, among others, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Germany and the United States.
The course is supervised by Nils Hint (EKA) and David Snoo Wilson (UK). The technological research is being conducted by lecturers from Ostrova University of Technology and Riga Academy of Arts, artist Peter Bauhuis from Germany and members of the international iron casting organization ICCCIA.
On Thursday, September 10 at 6:00 PM, the public final of the course will take place at the EKA’s Raja Street outdoor studio.
The iron casting course has been held at EKA since 2016. Over the past ten years, Estonian iron casting practice has become increasingly visible in Estonia, Europe and internationally. As a next important step, the EKA Department of Jewelry and Blacksmithing, in cooperation with ICCCIA, will organize an international iron casting symposium in Tallinn in 2028.
