Idyllwild "Metals Week" 2010

I feel priviledged to be asked to teach again at Idyllwild this summer. The class I am teaching involves the forging of a neck collar and then the fabrication of a slide/s to be used on the collar.

Idyllwild is located in the San Bernadino Mountains south of Palm springs. It is an inspirational setting for creating. I am looking forward to meeting all the students. I am including the link to the flyer announcing the programs for this year.

http://www.idyllwildarts.org/summer/registration/10_pdfs/10SUM_schedule.pdf

Custom Made Chasing Tools on the Web

The processes of repoussage and chasing have long been a passion of mine and I have had the pleasure of teaching several classes on the combined techniques. The availability of well made tools is always an issue when I teach. The first portion of my classes involve the making of appropriate tools for the projects we have scheduled.

This post will look at what is currently available in custom made tools. I have not intentionally omittted anyone from the list and I solicit further entries from anyone making custom chasing and repousse tools.

The order is no indication of preference or the quality of tools.

Valentine Yotkov http://www.valentinyotkov.com/site/chasing_tools.htm
Matt Weber http://www.dellaterrastudios.com/repoussetools.htm
Kirsten Skiles http://www.kaskiles.com/2007/05/chasing-tools-for-sale.html
Genevieve Flynn http://www.genevieveflynn.com/index.php?pg=6
Mark Gardner http://www.floodplainforge.com/tools.php
Gene Olsen http://www.mettleworks.com/sales/thestore.html
Victoria Landsford http://www.victorialansford.com/reptools.html
Rene Bluhm-Landsmann http://shop.ebay.com/gauchitogil/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
Pauline Warg http://www.wargetc.com/html/products.html
Liza Nechamkin http://nechamkin.com/
Fabrizio Aquafresa http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilmaestroacquafresca/5439484436/
Saign Charlestein http://www.saignc.com/Home.html

Hope you find this useful.

Ando workshop images

Mary Lee Hu sent me a cd of images scanned from her slides of the workshop. I am posting these few and will continue to post all as time allows. Most of the participants are familiar and many are friends. All have been generous in sharing their experiences with me.

I post these without descriptions.

Satsuo Ando Workshop

I am in the process of documenting a workshop taught by Satsuo Ando at the University of California at Fullerton in the summer of 1979. I am doing what I can to contact the craftsmen and women who attended the 2 week class and will document what I find in the blog over the next few months. The workshop dealt with Japanese techniques such as uchidashi and metal inlay. The making of the tools used was an important part of the class.

I am a beneficiary of this important event through the workshops taught by Eleanor Moty and am indebted to her and all who participated and their willingness to share.

Fred

Surface embelishments

I recently taught a two day workshop covering surface treatment of metal. It involved making at least a dozen or more examples of textures using hammers, stamps, punches, wire brush and the rolling mill.

Here are some examples of what was made.

wrinkled aluminum foil run through a rolling mill on sterling

small round chasing tool used to create dimples from the back on copper supported on wood

LMD Localized Metal Deformation

Images from the Idyllwild workshop 2008

These brooches made for Deb Jemmott and the two workshop assistants, Lindsay Rice & Mara Friedland. Lindsay and Mara were incredible and essential to the success of the workshop. I am grateful to them both for their help and to Deb for allowing me this great teaching opportunity.

Each is approximately 2"x2" and were made during the workshop. Deb's is the one on the upper left corner and has is set with a free spinning hemitite bead. I will be exploring more of these smaller sized brooches. My thanks to my wife Carrie who encouraged me to make these.

Fred

Older study in fold forming

Several years ago I assisted in a workshop taught by Harold O’Connor held here in Tucson. One of the techniques he taught us was fold forming. He called it smash and bash and gave credit to
Charles Lewton Brain.



Here is a piece I created and I incorporated a tapered copper tail and a simple patinated surface.

2"x2.5"