Chain reaction
From making music in a punk band to creating a rock n’ roll herd of fame, blacksmith Kev Paxton has come a long way, finds Morag Bootland
Blacksmith Kev Paxton always had an artistic streak, but while his fellow pupils were painting bowls of fruit in art class, he was screen printing T-shirts or customising matchbox cars. ‘My graffiti on the bus stop was always the best,’ he jokes.
After walking into his local smiddy in Ratho as a ‘snottynosed boy’ to ask for a job he stayed for ten years and learned the craft of metalwork before leaving to set up his own business, ArtFe. Now working from a farm on the west side of Edinburgh, he has commissions aplenty, a stand at the Chelsea Flower Show and is the blacksmith at the Royal Highland Show. He also stars in BBC TV show, Money for Nothing.
Kev is most famous for creating giant metal Highland cows, like Lemmie pictured here. But the ‘rock n’ roll herd of fame’ that he has created came about purely by chance. ‘I was delivering a large thistle that I’d made to a client in the Trossachs when she asked me what my next project would be,’ Kev recalls. ‘I looked over her shoulder and saw a Highland cow and I said “I’m going to make a Highland cow”. She asked me how much it would be and I winged it with a price and she said she would buy it for her husband’s Christmas.’ And the rest is history. Kev has now created around 12 cows for his rock n’ roll herd of fame, including the other members of Motorhead.
‘Lemmie weighs three-quarters of a ton and is a real heavy metal cow,’ says Kev. He was inspired by a trip to the harbour while Kev was sculpting a stag at the Pittenweem Arts Festival in Fife. Piles of rusty chains and fishing gear reminded Kev of a Highland cow and he put a call out to farmers, crane companies, scrap yards and harbours around Scotland in the hope that they would provide him with the old chains that he needed to create Lemmie. ‘People were sceptical at first, Kev says, but when they saw what we were doing with it they really got on board.’
It’s not all about cows for Kev, who also creates horses, like the sculpture of Scott Brash in Peebles and the aforementioned thistles and stags. ArtFe is a real success story and Kev’s enthusiasm for his work is as boundless as it is infectious. ‘I love Highland cows, every time I see one it makes me smile,’ he says. Everywhere Kev goes people want to talk to him about his work and he is always delighted when his cows make them smile too.