Fold Forming Workshop

As someone who has taught workshops on riveting and wire wrapping techniques, I appreciate how a day dedicated to a particular topic can significantly improve one's level of skill.

I decided that I wanted to improve my fold forming abilities and signed up for a workshop with the talented Wendy Edsall-Kerwin, offered through the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.

Along with seven other students, I spent last Saturday in the well equipped metals studio at Harrisburg Area Community College absorbing as much as I could.

Using a T-fold, I made a copper cuff.

We also had a chance to work with brass....definitely a bit more challenging than the copper.

I've mentioned before that fold forming involves lots of annealing- heating the metal to a dull red glow. 

Copper becomes very malleable when annealed.

Brass?....not as much.

I use wedge folds for my brass cuff.

Texture was added with the different hammers I was using and with the vertical face of the vice that I used to hold the brass in place while smashing it into shape.

When I began the brass cuff, I was envisioning a certain effect that I never did find.

Sometimes it's better to follow where the metal wants to take you.

I also did some line folds, again using copper.

Once the folds were completed, I annealed the metal and shaped it using a hoop mandrel.

I love the look of the folds and the textures left from the hammering and want to be able to turn this into jewelry.

I always need to consider how I can market my skills, and making earrings is often a good answer.

I used my jewelers saw to cut the folded copper piece in half and then filed and sanded the cuts.

I'm now considering options for attaching earwires, thinking that a cold connection might be the way to go.

In the meantime, there is a Christmas tree on my porch that needs to come indoors and get decorated.

Earwires will have to wait.