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It has been said that the art of working iron is the true Spanish craft. The chronicles say that the Roman conquerors of the peninsula threw away their swords in favour of the falcata iberica because of the perfect technique with which the iron was worked by the native population. This reputation reached new heights a few centuries later with the swords from Toledo or the popular, artistic grilles.

Today the changes in the way of life and the technological progress accompanying the industrial society are responsible for the perhaps definitive decline of these crafts in the cultural environment of Spain by substituting the traditional process of shaping the iron in the forge for cast iron production.

In many Spanish villages, however, there are still blacksmith craftsmen who keep alive the way of working the iron in the tradition of old. Albacete, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Asturias (Taramundi) preserve the rich craft of knife making, while in regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón, Extremadura, Andalucía and Cataluña there are forges producing grilles, door-knockers, andirons or steelyards among other objects. Other provinces with forges are Guipúzcoa, Asturias, Segovia or Burgos.

Some places in Ciudad Real (La Solana and Santa Cruz de Mudela), Valencia (Canals and Gandía), Navarra (Leiza and Goizueta), Salamanca and Galicia are well known for their production of farm tools: sickles, hoes, axes and cow bells, etc.

Copper has traditionally been used to make domestic and decorative objects: cauldrons, pots, braziers, stills, jars, devices to make chocolate, measuring devices for liquids and solids, etc. The main production centre is still Guadalupe (Cáceres) although most of the production has been mechanized. Other cauldron makers are found in Orense (Barco de Valdeorras), Granada, Albacete (San Juan de Alcázar), Ripoll (Girona) and a workshop of outstanding importance in Navafría (Segovia) because of the techniques used: shaping the cauldron with the blows of a hammer driven by the power of the water in the stream.

Decorative brass objects are made in Lucena (Córdoba) -where large amounts of copper were also used in other times-, Valverde del Camino (Huelva), Riopar (Albacete) and Orense.

Hand-made bronze objects are not widely found, except those from artistic castings. Nevertheless, there are outstanding centres in Lucena (Córdoba), Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Vigo (Pontevedra) and Zaragoza.

Working in pewter is hardly considered a craft, but there are some interesting workshops in Segovia and Valencia (Burjasot).

Tin has traditionally been used to make modest objects for domestic use or for decoration taking advantage of the shiny metal surface (for lamps, mirrors, wall lights, etc.). Today outstanding workshops are found in Madrid, Toledo, Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) and Galicia (Lalín, Betanzos and Chantada).

Silver and goldsmiths

Since Antiquity, the natural wealth of precious metals in Spain has attracted peoples and cultures interested in the art of jewellery. Therefore, the country was destined to become one of the most important centres in the West for this craft, while the treasures left behind by the different civilisations (Tartessos, Iberians, Phoenicians, Visigoths, etc.) which settled in Spain in the course of time are a good example of the technical perfection achieved.

Arab culture left -as in so many other crafts- unmistakable traces, to the point that today's damascene and silver filigree work have their origins there. Toledo still produces damascene objects, though the volume is gradually decreasing. The work consists of decorating softsteel surface areas with gold threads forming mostly geometrical patterns which are clearly Muslim. Even less so, this craft survives in Eibar where reproductions and new models of weapons are decorated in this fashion.

Also specializing in this craft are Ciudad Rodrigo and Tamames (Salamanca), as well as Granada and Toledo. Silverand goldware in general are produced in Córdoba, Sevilla, Palma de Mallorca, Madrid, Barcelona, Antequera (Málaga), Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) and Coruña; among others.

Santiago de Compostela (Coruña) is without doubt the most important centre in the world where the fragile shiny-black jet stone is used in artistic productions.

A feature revealing the deep roots of gold and silver in Spain is the fact that they are widely used by the population at large. There are many popular costumes of the traditional kind which are profusely adorned with jewellery. The Salamanca peasant or the La Alberca costume, the Lagartera (Toledo) costume, those of Segovia or Zamora, etc., are richly adorned with gold or silver filigree ornaments. In Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo and Cáceres the gold- and silversmiths are as active as ever. The regional costume of Valencia is still adorned with gold ornaments, especially the ornamental hair comb, the earrings and pins, etc.

Madrid, Salamanca, Barcelona and Córdoba have workshops where ivory carvings are made of animal figures. Other expensive woods or substitutes are also used.

Jewellery as a work of art has given design an outstanding role. Main production centres are found in Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Madrid and Coruña.

Leather

The special characteristics of leather (flexibility, elasticity, durability and excellence) as regards its preparation and use have turned it into the essential material for many objects for personal use, decorative objects of great artistic value or for the equipment of animals used for transport, drawing or riding.

The wide range of the demand justifies the use of all kinds of leather as raw material, from mammals -calf, pig, peccary, boar, goat, etc.- to the skin of reptiles -crocodiles, serpents, lizards, etc.- for fantasy objects and skins from fish and birds. There is a great variety of specialities in working leather, depending on the techniques used and the objects produced.

The region of Ubrique (Cádiz) is the main Spanish Moroccan leather centre. Its production is concerned with small-sized articles (wallets, cases, bags, cigarette cases, purses, attach cases, etc.) Alicante, the Balearics, Málaga, Barcelona, Valencia and Prado del Rey (Cádiz) are other interesting production centres in this sense.

The preparation of leather has been -and still is- a great artistic and creative challenge, includes embossing, polychromy, openwork, carving, chiselling, hammering, etc. Especially noteworthy is the production of saddlebags or Cordovan leather which is tooled and many coloured and of Muslim origin. By themselves, they are highly decorative, although they are also used in conjunction with furniture. In Córdoba their production is kept alive, but there are also other interesting centres for tooled leather: Granada, Ubrique (Cádiz), Salamanca and Cáceres.

Despite the progressive disappearance of the saddler's craft (saddles, packsaddles) as a result of mechanising farm labour and the replacement of the animal for pulling (horses, mules, oxen, etc.) by mechanical means, there are still a large number of workshops which supply saddles, harness and everything else required of animals used for transport, pulling and riding.

In many Andalusian villages as well as in the Provinces of Toledo, Salamanca, Segovia, Burgos, La Rioja, Badajoz and Coruña, there are workshops of this kind, but their production is slowly changing towards making equipment for hunting and riding.

Another, but less widely found craft using leather as a raw material is that of making boots (botos). It can still be found in Valverde del Camino (Huelva) and in several villages of the Province of Salamanca.

The craft known as botería or the making of leather containers for keeping and transporting wine is a speciality typical of Pamplona, Bilbao and Burgos. There are, however, interesting workshops in other Spanish wine-growing centres, such as Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real), Noblejas (Toledo), Calatayud (Zaragoza), Barbastro (Huesca), etc.