Maker's Holiday Weekend Workshops--Copper Fold Forming I and II

Sept. 24, 2010 - PRLog -- Fold forming is a joyful mash-up of origami and blacksmithing, and the Center for Metal Arts in Florida NY will host a two-day weekend workshop in the art, on Columbus Day weekend October 9 and 10, 2010, with Ed Mack leading the course. This popular workshop at the Center for Metal Arts explores fold-form techniques in copper, in a two-day session.  The first day focuses on learning four families of folds, with many possibilities for further development, and the second day session explores further fold forms and their applications. Take one day, or both days at the discounted full weekend rate.  

Fold forming is a new approach to metalworking which uses the metal’s plasticity and ductility to make complex forms resembling chased, constructed and soldered shapes from single sheets of metal. Radical changes in cross section are possible in as little as 3-5 minutes. A piece can be reworked and shaped, and the Center for Metal Arts studio provides a well-equipped range of tools to explore new ideas for working the material.

In this fold-forming workshop we work hands-on with the torch, hammer and anvil to learn a series of fold-forming techniques. The results are quick and gratifying, and lead readily to new design ideas. The workshop is a great idea generator for jewelers, sculptors, artists of any discipline, and designers and makers in any medium. Spending a day in the metals studio, working with one's hands, provides great work-life balance for the keyboard jockey who spends all week sitting at a desk. This is not just a course for artisans--no previous experience or artistic skill is required!

"Fold-forming lets me see directly into nature, into the relationships between process and material. The forms that emerge from the material are truly magical," says copper fold-form inventor Charles Lewton-Brain. The working processes are very close to the nature of the material, and modeling of nature is often apparent in fold forms.

Internationally acclaimed jeweler Charles Lewton-Brain pioneered this technique as a new method of working sheet material. What began as a playful discovery in moving metal has become an explosion of new ideas in design, jewelry and sculpture.  Lewton-Brain has taught his technique at the Center for Metal Arts, and a collection of his fold forms are in the upstairs gallery showroom in the former Borden's Creamery Icehouse in Florida, NY.  Ed Mack, who teaches the copper fold form technique, studied under Lewton-Brain.

There are 6 families of fold-forms, with thousands of variations within each, and if you come up with a new family of forms, Charles offers to let you name it yourself. Come work with the favorite tools for copper fold-forming: fingers, hands, hammers, mallets, torches, anvils and the rolling mill, for a weekend of creativity, exploration and pure fun. No prior experience required! Easy online registration is available at www.centerformetalarts.com, or call to reserve a seat.

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The Center for Metal Arts holds blacksmithing and other metal arts workshops for artisans, designers and the public. Located one hour north of New York City, The Center for Metal Arts offers an opportunity to work hot metal at the forge and anvil. The Center for Metal Arts is located in the working metal arts studio of Fine Architectural Metalsmiths in the 1890's Borden's Creamery Icehouse.