Find Mike at Cartwright Springs Brewery, 239 Deer Run Road, Pakenham

Hailing from Quadeville in the Madawaska River valley, Mike Desrochers returns to the Maple Run Tour with his spectacular metal sculptures and objects and his unique take on artisanal blacksmithing. His artwork is varied, each forged of scrap metal from farm and agricultural tools. Most creations are near-scale sculptural renditions of wildlife.

Contact Mike at mikedesrochers@live.ca or (613) 585-2856, and check out his website at mikedesrochers.ca.

Mike Desrochers works where fire meets memory.

He forges reclaimed iron and steel—metal once shaped by farm and forgotten industry—and draws from it new line, balance, and movement. At the anvil, heat and hammer become tools of translation. What was once ordinary is given tension, grace, and quiet strength.

Before the forge, he spent 35 years immersed in wild landscapes as an outdoor educator and guide. The rhythms of river, wind, and stone still echo in his work—clean lines, asymmetry, forms that feel both weathered and alive.

He allows traces of the material’s former life to remain—scars of use, softened edges, earned patina—so the past and present stand together in the finished piece.

Nothing is cast.

Nothing is repeated.

Each work is shaped by fire, only once.