I have to admit it - I have a lot of chasing and repousse tools, over 300 of them. But trust me, I know a few people who have more than double that.   Yet, I did not make the majority of them.  Yes, we know I am a hammer whore and I love tools in general but with the day job I found it easier to buy or to get tools made for me. 

Back in 2010 I took a tool making class at Metals Week in Idyllwild, California. This was a week long class where I made straight and curved liners, a large mushroom pusher, a few small pushers and I also learned to customize a hammer. I have also learned tool making from Nancy Megan Corwin; so I do know how to make them. I just don't do it very often.

Then there are those time where you want to make a tool for that special project.  

​A week  ago I finished the teaching sample for the squash blossom cuff. And I had the tools to do it. But I was making it, I thought that making a tool that would make the making of the points of the blossoms easier would be nice - a tear drop.  I also could use a small-er round tool for counter sinking the petals of the round flowers.   So what the heck, lets make them and not only would making my cuff be easier, the students in my workshop, next weekend, could use them too. 

Friday night I went into my tool blank drawer and found two small punches, a pre-shaped tool blank and a tagane blank (a Japanese chasing tool blank) all just begging to be worked on. 

The two punches were 1/32" and 3/32" in diameter so they would be the micro-rounds I would make. The pre-shaped tool blank would be the micro tear drop and for the tanage blank, a nano half round. 

Yesterday, I did the annealing and shaping. After that I took a nap because I am still sick and not sleeping well.  Today I hardened them, removed the scale, polished and the tempered them.  They are now ready for use.

Enjoy the pictures and remember, clicking on one will open it in a new, larger window and from there, you can scroll through them all.  And a thank you goes to the shop elf who took the pictures while I was hardening the tools.

In March I will be teaching a chasing & repousse cuff class to the ladies at the Palomar Gem & Mineral club. It is four day and I have 7 students (Mary, Heather, Karen, Laurie, Stephanie, Sylvia and Eleanor) and a shop elf (Diane). 

The goal of this class is described here. 

I was going to make a full set of teaching samples. The frame, the frame soldered on, the designed transferred to the metal, chased and with repousse, and then a final cuff before bending.  But then I got sick and oh, boy was I sick; and I am still recovering. 

Thus I cheated, for now, I did a small section of the design and it is now all finished. You got your chasing; you got your repousse; the texturing; a tube set CZ; a wee bit o'patina; and even some Keum-Boo!

​During the workshop I will be making the teaching samples so I have them for the next time.

Here is the sample all done - a good full shot and after that, lots of process pictures

In the blog post prior to this, I gave you a brief hint about my bowl for the Super Bowl Challenge.  
I have tried TWO times to participate but the first time I burned my hand and gave up. The second time, I stretched the metal as I was raising it to too much and I gave up again.  

Then for the past 3 years I was in Tucson during the challenge and did not even try to participate. 

This year, I wanted to and have completed the challenge

Since the challenge can be started before Super Bowl Sunday, I started to raise the bowl about 4 weeks ago. It is not a big bowl, it actually fits in my hand  BUT with so many other things happening, I wanted to give myself plenty of time. 

And then, with the new house being renovated, we are in Texas at the moment to do some design selections and a walk through. THUS I really could not finish the bowl today. THUS I finished it last weekend. 

I went in a different direction and didn't even do any chasing and repousse on the bowl. I enameled it. I learned torch fired enameling in 2012 and I made a ring, and had not done any other enameling since despite having bought the basic supplies.  Thus, I wanted to play with enamel and see what I could do on a small bowl. It was about having some fun.

After I finished raising the bowl last Saturday. I went into my copper scrap pile and got some pieces of copper I could do some tests on as I had a sample box of enamel and color names but no clue as to what they would look like.  I did about 6 test firings and on Sunday, I went into the garage with TWO plumbers torches (one was MAP and the other Propane) , the bowl and the enamels. I first did a counter coat on the outside in a nice bright green. Then applied a cobalt blue to the inside of the bowl and a deep blood red to the rim.  

Despite using TWO torches and forming a bit of a box with my fire bricks, it did take some amount of time to get the bowl hot enough for the enamel to melt and fuse.  Yet, overall I do like how it turned out and YES, I did have fun. 

Here is my bowl and of course, some process pictures which include some of the bowl cooling and you can see the enamel colors come out.