Meet the Rabenwald Team
Christopher Dietz aka Drogo Rabenwald
- Owner/Master Blacksmith -
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Chris Dietz has always been creative. Chris started as a child doing projects with his father, then entering a fine woodworking class in high school.
After trade school, he found medieval reenactment and started making jewelry as a hobby.
A few years went by and getting lay-ed off from his full-time job led him to add more shows to make ends meet. Which led to Rabenwald Metalsmything becoming a full-time career.
Chris started blacksmithing because a small Renaissance fair in his hometown wanted a demonstration, and he taught himself ironwork for that faire. Learning the techniques of the Blacksmith changed how he made and designed all of his artwork.
To grow the business further, Rabenwald Metalsmything focused more on Renaissance fairs after the pandemic.
Over the years since, Chris has found some amazing smiths to come and work with him.
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​Raymond L. aka Kaz - Shop Manager/Apprentice
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Ray has known Chris for over 20 years.
A talented maker who can work in many mediums, he settled on Leatherwork and perused it full time successfully for a number of years.
After the pandemic, Chris hired him on to help keep up with production.
Now he is the shop manager and taking on much of the forge work himself.
A large portion of our cooking Utensil line is forged solely by him.
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Tempest Dietz aka Tempest Rabenwald - Apprentice
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Tempest is one of the many smiths that work for Rabenwald Metalsmything.
As the child of the master smith Christopher Dietz, they grew up watching their dad in the forge and started learning to forge when they turned nine years old.
They started working for the business part-time as an artist at sixteen, mainly working on the decorative counter-twists found on most of the jewelry Rabenwald makes.
Now, ten years later, they are still working in the business only full time now.
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Taran W. - Apprentice/Skilled Farrier
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Perpetuating a family tradition of metalworking, Taran completed a degree in farriery in 2015, during which they picked up extra classes in blacksmithing and learned everything they could from their dad, a smith specializing in historical forging techniques.
Over the years, Taran has added many new heritage crafts to their repertoire but continues to return to metalwork as one of their favorites.
They love its balance of meditation and physical activity, and the potential to add artistic elements to almost any piece.
Teaching others about the history and skills involved in this artform brings Taran a great amount of joy, as do the tiny metal snails resulting from their demos.
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Dezlynn Savage aka Dez - Office Manager/Demo artist
Dezlynn has come from a craftsman background in the world of fabric and textile arts, Rabenwald has literally stolen her away from the circus and kept her by the sheer force of the chosen family she has found here.
She is now trying to apply her wide variety of skills to support all aspects of the business in any way she can.
Currently she is making sure to take care of Rabenwald Metalsmything in the background by taking care of any paperwork that is needed to apply to faires and continue to grow the company, you will occasionally find her in the booth supporting the Rabenwald family so that whatever show we are a part of always feels like home.
Dezlynn does get out to the shop and create in metal whenever she has the possibility, she is currently learning to do better demos so she can help the younger generations walk away from the forge with a smile and a story for years to come.
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Squeezel Rabenwald
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Squeezel has been part of the chosen family over here at Rabenwald for so long that herself, Drogo, and Tempest are the only members of the original crew/chosen family that have the honor of claiming the name Rabenwald.
Due to being amazing in the field that she has chosen to work you won't get to see as much of her as you do the rest of the crew here, but if you do see her never be intimidated of our wonderful blue haired sister because she is absolutely the mama bear of our group and will always take care of the people she surrounds around herself.
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Nicole P.
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Dez and Nicole met working at the circus before the pandemic hit, originally living states away from each other, one wild ride after another they found they were living less that 2 hours away from each other.
Nicole was given the opportunity to see how the renaissance faire circuit worked from Drogo and Dez's point of view and she was hooked from the start. She started to work the booths for Rabenwald, she adapted and quickly and the rest is history cause Rabenwald Metalsmything is stuck with her.
You will find her at almost all of the faires Rabenwald does over the season, if you have questions, she has answers for you!
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Lily Y.
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Lily has been around our NC chosen family for years, but it was not until last year that she actually started working with us.
Lily works full time on supporting the people she calls friends and has kidnaped the entire Rabenwald clan to her house any time we do a show in PA.
Here at Rabenwald we have to fight* other vendors to be able to have her work the booth as much as we can, she is only one person and demand for her time is valued by all she booth babes for!
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*Rabenwald does not condone fighting, but maybe rock, paper, scissors?*
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Chastity
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Chastity was adopted by the Rabenwald clan the first moment the world trapped them in our booth, during a downpour, our first ever time vending at The Pennsylvania Renascence Faire and they never left.
Their art lies in hand sewing and historical Tutor garb, just about any and every outfit you see them in they have created themselves.
Chastity works our booth whenever needed and will pop in and out on any given day, taking care of the crew in their own personal way.
They were fae trapped by the shiny metal that was given to them hot off the forge and are now contractually obligated to stay.
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