Foldforming

This past weekend I took a day-long foldforming workshop. I wanted to learn something new, and it had been ages since I took a class to learn a new technique. Foldforming was invented in the 80s by goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain (click here for more info on foldfoming on his website). It's a surprisingly easy way of manipulating sheets of metal into three-dimensional forms. Metal is folded, forged, annealed*, folded (or unfolded), forged, annealed, etc. in various ways to achieve interesting shapes.
*Annealing is heating the metal to soften it. Manipulating the metal hardens it.

The photo above has some samples of techniques I learned in the workshop (all done with copper). None of these are finished pieces of jewelry, but hopefully I can apply some of the things I learned to finished pieces.

These are organic, leaf-like forms.

Both of these pieces started with a "t-fold." The one on the right was then put into a hydraulic press to puff it out.

Some basic folds (above and below)