The Bullpen established its international links in 2006 with the first Iron Casting Workshop and the building of the first UK Continuous-flow Cupola Furnace. Professors Daniel Hunt and Casey Westbrook from USA worked with Josh Raimbach and Wesley Jacobs to build the furnace and other equipment for the foundry. Together they ran the casting workshop for artists and took the furnace to the 5th International Cast Iron Art Conference in Ironbridge... and so began the annual US/UK workshops.
 
In 2007 Marie-Georges Ryan, artist feltmaker and sheep farmer from Burgundy, France, taught on The Bullpen's first Wool Sculpture Workshop with Helen Jacobs and Jono & Debi Retallick (Farnham, Surrey).
The Bullpen maintains close links with Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture in Coalbrookdale, where Wesley and Helen Jacobs first experienced iron casting. Pam Brown at the Museum of Steel Sculpture has hosted iron casting workshops during the summer months for many years, with a furnace crew from Kentucky USA. Many of the Kentucky crew (including James Wade, Christopher Gerber, Jack Gron & Walter Early) are now also connected to The Bullpen, having visited for the Iron Pour 2009, and exhibited sculpture in the Curiosities exhibition 2009.
|