As a child Lucille spent many a happy hour watching a blacksmith at work, in her 20′s he offered an apprenticeship but having just completed a BEd in Design and Technology at Goldsmiths College she decided to follow the path of teaching. Sixteen years slipped by when she ran into a blacksmithing demonstration at a teacher’s conference and fell in love with hot metal all over again. A couple of years later Lucille persuaded Portsmouth High School to give her a year’s unpaid sabbatical to go to Herefordshire College of Technology and train as a blacksmith.

On completing the course, Lucille set up ‘Little Duck Forge’ in Eastney, working part time in her old job and part time as a smith. She has recently resigned from teaching to concentrate on developing her artwork and is currently doing a block release course at Hereford to extend her design and forge work skills. She can be seen demonstrating the art of blacksmithing locally at museums, fairs and garden shows or working in the her forge on personal art projects and private commissions.