JAN TRICARICO of Winthrop is pretty adept at putting things in place. A part-time chiropractic assistant, Tricarico can be seen this week at the Topsham Fair. But instead of working with muscle and bone, she is into fire and metal as she conducts blacksmithing demonstrations.

“I started about 10 years ago. I was at a Windsor fair, where there were two gentlemen working at the forge, and I was fascinated,” Tricarico said.

Over the next few years, Tricarico said she got to know the blacksmiths. “I learned what I could from them,” Tricarico said. “They thought I’d last about two weeks, but I stayed. And now I get to demonstrate.”

Tricarico said she wasn’t entirely sure why blacksmithing fascinated her so much, but said it might have something to do with her former life as a firefighter in Fairfax, Va.

“I’ve never been artistic, I don’t color in the lines. I never considered myself creative,” Tricarico said, with a laugh. “I don’t know what it is, if it’s the fire. I must be drawn to fire.”

And those fires get pretty hot.

To make a decorative hook, Tricarico burns soft coal to 1,800 degrees, although the fire in her forge can reach temperatures up to 2,600 degrees, she said. “It actually can get hot enough to burn metal.”

After shaping the hook with a hammer and anvil, Tricarico adds a finishing touch, melting beeswax over the hook to create a finish.

Blacksmith demonstrations have become common place at events such as the Topsham Fair, and Tricarico said she has started to see onlookers return year after year to watch as she works.

“It’s fun when somebody says, ‘My grandfather was a blacksmith. I love that smell. It beings back so many memories,’” Tricarico said.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

THE 160TH annual Topsham Fair runs daily through Sunday. The

Times Record will focus on Faces at the Fair throughout this week. For a schedule of events, visit www.topshamfair.net.