Anticlastic forming | Eileen Moylan

Summer Courses

03.01.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

I just got a brochure for this summer’s jewellery courses at Birmingham City University. I spent last night going through the catalogue marking all the courses that interested me. If you’ve seen the line up for this summer you’ll understand how difficult it is to narrow down my choice. They have a brilliant classes taught by really accomplished makers.

You might remember that I went on the Syncalstic and Anticlastic forming course last summer which was taught by Cynthia Eid. It was such a great week, I learnt more than I could have possibly imagined in such a short space of time and I also got to visit all my favourite tool shops in the jewellery quarter. Considering my obsession with buying new and not so new tools this was like being let loose in a toy shop for a week. The weight of my suitcase coming home is testament to how little restraint I have when it comes to jewellery tools shopping.

So here are a few of the course I really want to go on this summer.

Creative Metal Forming with a Hydraulic Press by Cynthia Eid. This class combines using a hydraulic press with surface enrichment techniques. As part of the course you get to make and use your own embossing and silhouette dies.

Creative Microfolding, foldforming and Argentium Silver, Cynthia Eid. Fold forming is a technique I would love to improve and refine. It can create the most amazing effects and as this technique makes the metal stronger you can create very light but strong three dimensional forms.

Enamelling Introduction by Tamizan Savill. I’ve never had the opportunity to study enamelling and this course sounds like the perfect way to dip my toe into it and explore various techniques. I met Tamizan in Birmingham last year and saw some of her amazing work.

Keum Boo Embellish Silver with Gold, Katherine Campbell-Legg. Keum Boo is the technique of decorating silver with very thin sheets of gold foil. With gold prices increasing this is a great way of achieving that lovely gold silver contrast without the major expense.

Polishing Masterclass by Stephen M Goldsmith. As I mentioned last week polishing is one of those jobs I would rather not have to do. I’ve been thinking maybe it’s because I’m just not very good at it! So a course like this would be great to make me a better and more efficient polisher.

So there you have my summer course wish list. Would love to hear what courses interest you.

Synclastic and Anticlastic Forming

08.05.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is part two in a series on the synclastic and anticlastic Forming class I attended in Birmingham. To read part one click here.

The first two days were spent familiarizing ourselves with synclastic and anticlastic forming. At this stage we were all well settled into the workshop and were making use of our week in the jewellery quarter. It was brilliant to be in the middle of all the jewellery tool shops. Most of my lunchtimes were spent going from shop to shop buying tools. Which I happily dragged home in my bulging suitcase.

So on day three once we got the hang of synclast and anticlast forming we moved on to spiculums. A spiculum is made from a single piece of sheet metal which is formed into a tapering tube. This process involves hammering the metal until it rolls into itself forming a long hollow tube.

Once they had been hammered into a straight tube and soldered closed we were able to curve them. I found curving them the most stressful part of the whole exercise. You have to take this hollow tube that you’ve toiled over and gingerly bend it with your hands. It has too be well softened by annealing before you start. Once you feel you have curved it as much as possible before it buckles you anneal again. You continue like this until you get the curve you require. I decided to quit while I was ahead and opted for a gentle curve!

We also made open seam spiculums, which look very similar to the closed spiculums but are not soldered. These are made using techniques similar to anticlastic ribbons. We also got a chance to make a double helix, the same process used in Bronze Age Torcs.

We packed so much into the five days, I hadn’t expected to learn as much and be able to explore each technique. Cynthia was a great teacher, everything was brilliantly demonstrated and she patiently answered all our questions. She also brought along lots of her own tools for us to use. One hammer in particular I fell in love with (I know, I hear how sad that sounds!) so I’ve added that to my wishlist of tools. Having five days to refine my hammering skills was such a luxury and will definitely influence my future work.

A Hammering Holiday

06.28.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

June has been a busy month and it looks like July will be equally hectic! As well as adding new products to the shop, blogging and keeping up with the orders I’ll be spending a week in Birmingham. I signed up for a course on Anitclastic and Synclastic hammering and raising so I’ll be jetting off to Birmingham on the 17th July for a week.

This five day masterclass is run by the Birmingham Institue of Art and Design and is taught by Cynthia Eid. It is part of the college’s summer course programme. Click here to view to full catalogue of courses.

The course that I’m going on looks specifically at anticlastic and synclastic hammering and raising. These sound like very fancy terms but synclastic just describes a form where the dominant curves both move in the same direction like a bowl. Anticlastic forms are when the two dominant axes curve in opposite directions like a saddle. These techniques can be used to amazing affect in sculptural silver pieces. If you look at a detail of the work of Cara Murphy below you can see the hand raised anticlastic curves. Another artist that uses this type of forming is Benjamin Storch, I wrote a post about his work last year. Click here to read it.

These raising and forming techniques can be used in both silversmithing and jewellery. The course will also look at refining hammering skills and will teach how to hammer comfortably for several hours at a time. A very useful skill considering I’ll be hammering for five days!

I’m going to bring my netbook with me so I can keep the website updated with lots of photos and stories from the week.

Making Maths Beautiful

11.26.2010 by Eileen Moylan //

Don’t worry this isn’t a post about equations and theorems. It’s about what happens when a talented silversmith gets their hands on a big sheet of metal and some maths equations!

This is the work of Welsh based metalsmith Benjamin Storch. He works in sheet silver and other metals to create these amazing flowing forms. The work is based on different mathematical programmes and equations which he often uses to generate ideas. This piece is based on work by the German mathematician August Ferdinand Mobius and what is known as Mobius strip.

The process involves sketching the piece out and then creating a model on the computer. The metal is then cut and formed by hand to create these forms. These curves are created by a complex forming technique know as anticlastic forming, whereby the central surface areas are compressed and the peripheral areas are stretched.

Apart from the beauty of the work, the really interesting thing about this process is that it can be traced back to Celtic torcs which are now on display in the National Museum. The Irish Silversmith Brian Clarke and American Michael Good did research on the manufacture of these torcs. It just shows the levels of craftsmanship in these early pieces and that anticlastic forming is not new to the silversmithing world.

This was a pleasant surprise for me. I didn’t think when I started looking at Benjamin Storch’s work and maths, I’d end up back with a piece that can be found in the National Museum! I can’t find a decent picture of the torc but I’m planning a trip to the Dublin next week so I’ll pop in and take one.