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Fascination with Fold Forming

12/26/2010

 
A year ago, I took a class where we did some fold forming and learned to use a hydraulic press. The folding forming was a basic T-fold and then we used the press to deform the T-fold. We used the folded metal with a semi-circular die, to spread the fold open and to create dept for our finished piece.

I had not planned on taking that class but because I cancelled another one, I took this class instead only to find out about the hydraulic press. Afterwards I was pleaseantly surprised because I like the pendant I had made and I had learned two new techniques.

All of this was just prior to me taking classes with Deb. I was at that point were I knew I did not want to concentrate on jewelry; I wanted to learn silversmithing and was still looking for a teacher. I tucked these two techniques away only thinking about how they might be applied to jewelry and moved on.

Last month (November to be exact), I learned how to make a silver shibori bracelet. [Shibori is a Japanese term for several methods of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, compressing it, or capping. Some of these methods are known in the West as tie-dye.] When the term shibori is applied to metal, it is a type of fold forming such that the folds are gentle giving the allusion of fabric. 

I fell in love with my cuff bracelet and now I want to learn more about fold forming so I spent part of the weekend watching YouTube videos on fold forming; I Google-d images; I researched books; I read everything on Charles Lewton-Brain's website (http://brainpress.com/Foldforming.html); and then I ordered his book as well as a good quantity of thin gauged copper.

At the December 2nd Saturday, with Deb we discussed my bracelet, fold forming in general and then we went through a box of her fold forming experiment samples and Deb explained how she made some of them. Deb also had set up 2 metal corrugators made by her husband and I came home with some simple samples where I had used the 2 different corrugators alone and together which resulted in some very interesting textures. Yes, Virginia, corrugation is a type of micro-fold forming (See pictures below - remember you can click on the pictures to see a larger image).

With the new year around the corner, I hope to work my way through CL-B's fold forming book by doing a new fold every few weeks and then pondering some ideas of how to apply it to my work.

For your delight - here are some pictures of the corrugated samples I made. Click on any image to view it full sized
irene butschli link
12/26/2012 01:30:04 am

Christmas brought aspresent from my son, thebook on foldforming by ch. lewton-brain, ---
can't put it down. As a longtime metalworker, copper enaming included and combined with other metalwork, you can see that I read your story with great interest.You mentioned classes -are you perhaps in Arizona or California?

The Silversmith
12/26/2012 10:33:26 am

I am located in California. But there are many Fold Forming classes given in Arizona, look at the ADC website as they have great classes.

Caren
4/11/2013 12:25:37 am

Hi, I am ( soooo very) interested, and a little obsessed with your silver shibori bracelet and wonder if you would offer any advice on how to start. I just ordered the fold forming book you mentioned. Now what.
Thanks,
Caren

The Silversmith
4/13/2013 06:07:47 am

Caren,
Now that you have the book, I would suggest that you start at the beginning and learn how to make the basic folds. After that you can start to experiment with making some jewelry or other decorative items. If you are on FB, there is a fold form group you can join, ask questions and see what other are working on. Good Luck.


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