Ferronerie Sabbate - Castelnaudary

M. Sabbate is both an ironsmith and an artist - a Chaurien from birth, as a boy he can remember the old ladies, who he realises with a jolt were the age that he is now, carrying their cassoles through the streets in their tabliers and their bonnet and the sabots, taking their cassoulet to the boulanger to cook in his ovens. This inspired his Porteuse de Cassoulet, who presides over the entrance to the town (she has been Blipped).
I went to see him to ask for offcuts for the school childrens' objets trouves sculptures -He obliged and gave me wire and handfuls of the beautiful iron curls which cover the floor.
We watched his apprentice plunge a bar into the fire and then bend it into art-deco loops, amongst the birds and the phoenixes, the horses' heads with elaborate iron manes, the fire-guards shaped like flames and the screens full of arabesques.