Chasing and Repousse for Beginners

Perhaps there is a sheet of copper on your bench, a hammer within reach, and a pitch bowl you have not yet filled, along with a quiet worry that raised metal belongs to people who were handed the skill. Most of what you have read about chasing and repousse assumes you already own the tools and the nerve, so you are probably wondering where a first-timer actually begins. Begin here, with the metal itself, and let the tools come second.

This book starts with how copper behaves under a hammer, because hammering stiffens it, heat softens it again, and every later decision, from how many taps to when to stop, follows from that. It then covers sheet copper in 22 gauge, with a gauge table in inches and millimeters, and the annealing torch, the water quench and the pickle bath that bring a stiff piece back to soft, one dull cherry red glow at a time.

After that come hand tools, described by what each face does to the metal, a pitch bowl built and kept in working order, and hammer drills on scrap that train your hand before any project is at risk, including a dot grid, straight lines, curves and a depth ladder you score against the book's own targets.

I wrote it in that order because most failed pieces trace back to a skipped step, not a missing talent, so the early chapters go slowly on purpose. Hot pitch, torch flame, pickle acid, patina fumes and sharp gravers each carry a real hazard, so the safety step sits directly in front of the step it protects, every time it returns.

• Nine metalworking projects, from a traced leaf medallion and a matted scroll plaque to a raised and engraved earring pair.
• Handmade pendants and earrings finished with jump rings and ear wires, using cold connections only, so no soldering is needed.
• A liver of sulfur patina darkening the engraved cuts, then polished back to bright copper on the high points.
• Fix thin spots, slipped tools and warped sheet with a repair guide that says what to trim, rework or restart.

The middle of the book has you tracing lines with a liner that stays on its mark, raising a dome from the back in light passes, and checking its height with a modeling clay impression before the next pass begins.
The last chapters have you engraving a border on the flat rim, darkening and polishing a pendant, drilling the hanging hole and closing a jump ring through it. Along the way you learn to read the metal: the rebound that says anneal now, the shine that says the sheet is thinning, the glossy pitch that says stop heating. None of it needs a studio, only a bench, good light and a room with moving air.

Take the practice squares seriously, because the projects ask nothing the drills have not already rehearsed. Keep your first medallion on a shelf, since a year from now it will show you how far your hands have travelled. And when a piece splits, as pieces do, read the break before you reach for another sheet; it will tell you exactly which blow to change.

Set the liner on a square of annealed copper, tilt it slightly forward and feel the first line sink in under the hammer.