Frank Annighofer, Beartooth Mountains, Montana
“Frank always had an artistic talent. He has been handcrafting little sculptures and training his eye in photography since childhood. Frank learned blacksmithing in the late 1960s/early 1970s in his father Dieter’s shop in Hamburg, Germany. In these years he traveled around in Germany and Italy to take photographs of blacksmithing art to bring new ideas into the family business. Frank learned the basics of blacksmithing just like his father Dieter had learned them from his father, Frank’s grandfather, Arthur. Arthur Annighofer ran a small copper and iron smithing business in Insterburg in East Prussia. He received his Meisterbrief (master diploma) in 1930.
It was hard to make a living from pure blacksmithing at the time Frank apprenticed with his father. Machine fabricated pickets and scrolls came on the market that looked almost like hand forged. And only few people had the money to afford traditionally handcrafted metal art. Frank decided on a different career. After receiving his PhD in polymer sciences he worked in different functions from research to marketing, from consulting to general management in the US, Germany, Switzerland and Italy to name just a few.
It would take until 2003 when Frank and Annette decided to quit the business tread mill and to go back to their roots. They moved to the solitude of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains where they have built quite a reputation as artists and handcrafters since then.”