My hand painted greeting cards

Hand Painted Watercolor and Ink Greeting Cards

Chasing & Repousse' Puppy Pendant

I am going to first design and draw the object I wish to work on.

Once it is drawn, use a fine coatond of vaseline on the backside of the patterned copper and make sure to bend the corners so shen it is placed in to the melted pitch it will not shift as much when the copper is being worked. Make sure to let the pitch fully cool before starting to work.

This is my 3-D drawing of what I am trying to acheive with my repousse

Now with my pitch fully cooled, I will start to chase the outline of my puppy.

This is what it looks like after I worked the outline. 

One this is done, heat the pitch and remove the copper piece.  Now tuen it over and wipe off the vaseline.  Add a fine layer to what is the back of your piece and turn the corners the opposite way.  Heat your pitch and place the piece in and wait again for it to cool before starting the repousse.

Using the repousse tools, you will hammer the metal to raise and form the shape you want to achieve. 

If you notice that the metal is not moving much, your piece will need to be annealed.

As you may notice from the hammering, the piece is starting to curve.

Once your piece has been annealed, flatten the edges with a rawhide hammer.

Make sure that every time you place your piece in the pitch that you put the small amount of vaseline on the side that is setting into the pitch.  If you don't, you will have pitch stuck to the back of your metal that will have to be torched off.  Trust me, this is not easy to get off!

This is my set up when working.

Here I put Midas Black Max on my metal  so it would turn black in all of the textured areas of my piece.  

Here I buffed off the raised areas to show the texture better.

More to Come!

Chasing and Repousse'

Draw your design

Design is based on setting these Sleeping Beauty Turquiose Cabs

Proper calibration is important when Chasing a setting

The pattern is taped on with double sided tape and the I follow the lines with an exacto knife

Marking the edges

Removing the pattern

Here you can see the pattern scratched into the sterling 

Here is where the stones will sit

With a jewelers saw I cut out the top band of the cuff 

Here it is 

Now I prepare my pitch bowl for the chasing by heating the pitch with a heat gun

Below you see the Vaseline. To make it easier to remove your piece from the pitch I highly recommend rubbing a thin layer in the back or you will have to clean pitch off the back.

Piece is set in the pitch and the pitch is pushed over the edge of the silver. 

Here I an chasing the pattern on 

Here you see what it looks like as I chase 

This is what it looks like on the back side 

You will need to straighten out your piece as you work on it 

Here we add Vaseline to the front side that was just chased 

Now I will start the repousse'

These are the tools I am using

Punching in dome dots 

Chasing  in pattern

Ready to heat and remove 

Now I will use my torch to anneal my piece

Poor to annealing I dipped my sterling piece in barrier flux to keep the fires ale from building up 

Quench 

And place it in a pickle to clean it up 

Hammer flat trying not to hit on the repoussed area 

Back on repousse side 

Flip Vaseline and refine detail 

Check to see if stones are fitting

Shape

This is the back half of the cuff