Since the start of the year, I have been organizing a workshop with Saign Charlestein, of SC Studio, at the Palomar Gem & Mineral Club. 
It was a long process. First it was just going to be those of use in the club for 5 days. Then there was interest from some of the people down at the San Diego Mineral & Gem Society so it became TWO - 5 day session with 8 people in each and there was still a small waiting list.   All of this required lots of emails between me and Saign and all the students and at the last minute two people cancelled so I had to contact those on the wait list and re-organize who was in each week so we did not end up with any empty spots. It all worked out in the end and finally last week was the first session and the second session is happening now.

Saign on the first day started all of us off with a lining exercise to gauge our skill level. We did not have any newbies in this class but we did have a wide range of skill level. On the second day he gave us a second project based on how we did and we spent two days working on this. On the fourth and fifth days we started a third project, again based upon how we did on the second project.

Here are pictures from the first session. 

When "we" start learning to do chasing & repousse, the first metal we usually work with is copper. It is easy and cheap. Then after much fear, we will usually move on to sterling and fine silver - harder to move than copper and certainly more expensive than copper.  Others move to brass which while cheaper than silver, behaves like sterling silver in the pitch pot.   A lot of people stop here and never move into working with gold, yes GOLD that wonderful metal that is very, Very, VERY expensive these days. Gold is not a metal you start with.

Plus, because of the cost, it is intimidating. There is the "Oh, no! what if I f*uck it up!!" thoughts whilst shaking in your shoes and biting your finger nails. 

Yes, if you start off as a jeweler/goldsmith, you learn to work with gold - annealing, soldering, casting, milling. Yet if you come from the traditional silversmith/hollowware side of things and you don't go to a professional school, the only way to learn to work with gold is to have someone teach you or you go it alone. Which can also add another level of being scared to the process.

After my foray into fusing gold to silver on the Squash Blossom & Vine cuff, I knew it was time to get some gold and do the chasing & repousse dance with it.  I knew from having spoken to a few other C&R artist that they like 22K gold and that it behaved like sterling silver even at a thinner gauge. So I not only bought some 22K at 20g sheet, I bought some 14K rose gold at 22g. I bought some solder and a bit of wire; I was going to make some ginkgo leaf earrings and the wire would allow me to make the ear wires and some jump rings to solder to the leaves and from there, hang off the ear wires.  

I also contaced Metalsmith Deb to get a lesson in working with gold - soldering, annealing, etc... This workshop with a few other gold virgins is NEXT weekend. My rose gold arrived yesterday so I decided to get started on the chasing & repousse, why wait.  I will admit I went cheap, $350, with the rose gold and only ordered a 1"x2" piece which I now realize is just too small to have any edge held by the pitch and I ordered it easy (annealed) hardness and now I know it wasn't.   To cut a long story short, I lined, flipped and started the repousse and that metal just wouldn't move.   I asked some questions in the Metalsmith's Coffeehouse on FB and got some great advice on how to anneal which I did this morning and NOW I am moving metal.  

Many people have a misconception that working in gold is easier than sterling - from a hammering stand point. Trust me, 22g, 14K gold IS HARD and it feels like I am working on 18G hard sterling silver. On the plus side, I am not (as) afraid of working in gold now.  I almost have the repousse on one leaf done and will move on to the second leaf later today or tomorrow night.  With luck I might get the chasing done by next weekend.  

The 22K 20g gold sheet is due to arrive this next week and IF I have to redo the ginkgo leave on that sheet, I will and all of this is chalked up to learning. Enjoy the pictures and more will be posted when I have more to show next week. ​

This past weekend I taught a 2-day workshop on making chasing & repoussé tools at the Palomar Gem & Mineral Club in Escondido, California. Again, Diane was my shop elf and there were 6 students.

On Saturday, day one, I had all the students make the same tool from rectangular stock. The tool has a full half circle profile when viewed from the short sized with vertical sides when viewed along the long side. This was a tool that everyone during the worskhop for the Squash Blossom & Vine Cuff.  The students chose this tool and I knew that they could finish this shape easily on the first day which would then give them the skills to make 1 or more the second day.

We discussed tool steel, files, annealing, hardening, tempering, quenching in oil or water, making templates, sanding, polishing and most importantly SHOP SAFETY.

Almost everyone finished their tool by 3pm on the first day and so we then sat down with my vintage tools and each student chose a tool and had to tell us why they chose it.  I wanted to use this exercise as a way to make them think about WHY and WHEN to make a custom tool vs. a general use tool.   Since we had time, I had them anneal the tool stock they would need for this new tool and thus have it ready at the start of day two.  Several students chose smaller tools and even my custom micro tear drop tool I had made for the Squash Blossom cuff; other chose medium and larger sized pushers (for repousse).

Sunday morning arrived early (930 am) and hot and humid and by lunch time most were well on their way to finishing their second tool.  By late afternoon most of their first tools of the day were done and several had started a second if not third tool.   As 5pm approached, all of us were hot, dirty and tired but the students all had a great sense of  accomplishment and empowerment at their new found skills and completed tool.

As usual, here are lots of pictures of the students and work.