nuco forge and welding - company profile

The Artist

Gino Rickard was born in 1961 to John and Jaqueline Rickard in Hampshire, England. He left school in 1977 after qualifying with honours in art and metalwork. He was then taken on as an apprentice by the world famous Blacksmith, Guisseppe Lund in Brockenhurst, England. He served the latter portion of his 3 year apprenticeship in Ironbridge, England with yet another world renound Ironsmith artist by the name of Tony Robinson, a good friend and colleague of Guisseppe.

During his apprenticeship years he was fortunate enough to attend several international seminars and study tours. He went on to win several prestigous awards during these years, including a national competition organized by the Solid Fuel Advisory Service. He also exhibited in several prestigous exhibitions, including the Modern Wrought Ironwork and Sculptures Exhibition in Lindau, Germany. These events and achievements led to great recognition and respect from the various metal artist communities around the world, not to mention his peers.

The Company

In 1981 Gino joined the Nuco Welding Ltd. team to advance his welding and metalworking skills in other areas. Being the perfectionist that he is, he felt it was essential that he learn every aspect of working with various different types of metal and their possible applications. This tenacity and patience has led him to be the wizard of metal manipulation that he is today, those many years of working for very little money have also led to the incredible knowledge that he has of his craft. When he joined Nuco, the company did not have a forge, so one of the first things he did was set out to build one. During his 10 years with the Nuco Welding team he worked with many other tradesman and craftsman, in many different areas, including agriculture, heavy plant repairs, construction and ship building. This pot pouri of experience helped him gain a variety of knowledge in metalworking and engineering, all necessary aspects to consider when embarking on large structual art projects.

In 1991, when Bill Nutbeam (Owner of Nuco Welding Ltd.) was forced into early retirement due to health problems, Gino took the opportunity to take control of his own destiny and seized an opportunity to finally do what he loves best. Being given the choice, he decided to purchase the company and re-named it Nuco Forge and Welding. This has given him the freedom to explore further design ideas in metal. It has now grown to the point that the company and the artist have gained worlwide recognition and a client list which contains some very well known people and organizations.