So what are we doing now?

Quite some time ago I posted on the foldforming course I was doing with Charles Lewton-Brain in Calgary.

This weekend I finally got around to sorting some of the photos from the trip away; and it reminded me of other people on the course: Anna, Heather, Katie, Beatriz, Linda, Lina, Ron and Bonnie. Most of the group had jewellery backgrounds. I was wondering what they were doing now; and how they were using the foldforming knowledge and skills picked up on the course.

The two photos above show Charles in demonstration mode; and the second shows most of the group hard at work - lots of intense heating and beating going on.

These two photos show some of the jewellery type work done by a couple of members of the group. The blue patina was achieved with cloudy ammonia.

Since returning home I have built myself a new outside work bench; have had a couple of goes at testing the equipment out; and this weekend got stuck into a few bowls.

First foldform on new bench

It just had to be done. The bench was built, a small gas bottle and burner nozzle was purchased, the vice was in place so I just had to show myself I could go through the foldforming process at home on my own.

Photos show a piece of copper plate annealed, folded in half and marked up - about 150mm long. The second photo shows the piece cut and beaten to create the form. I hardened some areas to get the ruffled look along the edge. Another annealing on some terracotta clay tiles I had made months ago. Recycled brass jardiniere acted as the quenching pot. And the final product unfolded and buffed with a bit of steel wool.

It worked. Thanks to Charles Lewton-Brain for introducing me to this new technique. The test will be to work out how to incorporate this into my sculptural work.

Slightly different

Fiona and I have been in Portland for a couple of days. We came for a number of reasons but the two important ones were it has a reputation for supporting the arts; and Fiona (and I) could do a one day course introducing us to letterpress.

The letterpress course was held at a community run print resource centre (Independent Publishing Resource Centre). Like most community resource centres it was tucked away in an older building with lots of stuff crammed in and run by volunteers. It had some great historical desktop printers - I had printer envy by the end of the day.

The course was excellent. It was run by a highly qualified and experienced young woman who just pitched the pace and level of information right. Fiona and I worked together on one of her quotes. We put the whole process into practice: set up type; fixed it in the print frame; tried a couple of printers; colours; and different papers.

You can see the printed results on Fiona's post. It was a great learning day. And I liked all the old gear; and the lead type; the smell of ink; and the magic of multiple prints. I think it will be a skill I will pursue on the side.

Foldformed forged steel

The foldforming course is at an end. We had a show and tell on the last day and the photo below shows that I was not slacking during the course. I managed to try every thing that we were taught and also tried some things in different metals including aluminium and brass.

After the show and tell Charles said we could try a few last things that interested us. I asked if I could try foldforming steel given how I use rusted steel in my work. He said of course. So we tracked down some 2mm mild steel. I wanted to try a two fold bowl; and he was going to do some metal chasing.

We set up a forge using fire bricks and oxy torch. The photos below show the forge fire and Charles beating his work.

The following photos show my foldformed and forged steel two fold bowl with brass highlights (added when the steel was still very hot).

You might note the 'bite' out of the bowl - the fire was a bit hot and melted the steel - still a bit wabisabi Noela?

And the folding, flaming and beating goes on

The last two days have been full of creativity, learning and at times long days and hardish work. But the bottom line is I am learning so much from the foldforming course I think I have bored Fiona with about 30 show-and-tell pieces.The following photos show a sample of the work.

Organic leaf like forms.

Fragile spiral like form.

More claw-like or prehistoric shapes.

And of course one of a few bowls I have made. I like this shape with folds at four points. I have put a patina on it using copper nitrate under a exhaust hood and using heat.

Foldforming or beating metal in Calgary

Well you might register from the title of this post that Fiona and I are in Calgary. We have come here so that I can take part in a Summer School course in Foldforming at the Alberta College of Arts and Design.

The course is being taught be Charles Lewton-Brain the founder of this form of metal working.

I started the four day course today with 9 others - most from Canada but one person from Russia and one from Israel.

The day was full on - there was not a lot of idle time for food or sitting around. That is good news for me - I like to really get into it. At he end of the day we had progressed through 3 categories: lines; spirals; and stars. I managed to do 9 work samples.

As you can see from the photos above there are some great shapes. For me it is a good combo of: familiarity with tools; metal beating; and learning quick design approaches that deliver spectacular organic form (Noela I know that is so unlike me - but I and looking to create the organic within a square framework). Am looking forward to tomorrow.