Welding Workshop

Welding Workshop

3 days: 10am to 4pm, Friday 10 to Sun 12 October 2025

Participants: 5. Cost: €360. Tutor: James Kelly. Beginner to Intermediate.

The course is aimed at the general needs of artists, though all are welcome. The workshop will cover basic theory and operation of three different types of welding process: mainly Arc and MIG welding, and later introducing TIG welding; when to use one type of welding process over another; essential health & safety principles. The workshop will cover approaches to constructing metal sculpture, how to create basic mechanical fixings with cutting and joining techniques (such as filing, tap and die cutting, riveting), safe use of hand power tools (angle grinders, drills etc) and larger equipment not commonly available in home studios (cut-off saw, rollers, heavy-duty pillar drill, guillotine). The workshop will focus on the use of mild steel, though the principles would carry over to other metals. Students should come with sturdy boots.

James Kelly is a practising artist based in North Leitrim. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Slade School of Fine Art, where he graduated with Distinction in 2014. Kelly has worked in various technical capacities, as a freelance fabricator for artists and gallery technician for Gasworks Gallery, White Rainbow, Kate McGarry gallery, and Tate Modern, among others, from 2014 to the present. His experience also includes metal fabrication (steel, brass, aluminium with TIG/MIG welding and brazing) and mount making for antiques at Lapsley Frameworks. He served as the Head Technician for the Sculpture Symposium at ForumArts in 2016, and he was a technician and instructor at a London sculpture facility, teaching welding (MIG, Arc), green wax sculpting, and demonstrating bronze casting (ceramic shell) for short courses from 2014 to 2017. Additionally, he worked as a technical instructor for video at University College Falmouth from 2011 - 2012, and as a prop maker for Garsington Opera Festival, where he created stage props, handling woodwork, casting, and scenic painting from 2003 - 2010. Prior to that, he worked as an architectural model maker at Howley Harrington Architects from 2001 - 2003.

Accommodation: We have private rooms available for €35 per night in our residential building. Please book your tickets to the workshop on Eventbrite and then email us to see if we have a room available to: info@leitrimsculpturecentre.ie.