Fold-forming

The class I took this summer was on Fold-forming and Torch Enameling.  Fold-forming involves annealing the metal and then bending it by hand and in vises and hammering edges to make sharp folds that look a little like origami.  You then re-anneal and unfold the metal and then repeat the process to get more lines and folds.  It creates very organic shapes and textures.

We used 24gage copper.

The gloss is water left over from the metal being quenched after annealling.

 The fold on the left, below, is a pinch fold.  The one on the right is called a T-fold.

When you fold a piece of metal in half and then hammer on either the folded or the open side the metal will move in that direction. 

I cut out a rough leaf shape from this folded piece of copper.

I then hammered the stem on one side and the leaf part on the other to make this three-dimensional, life-sized copper leaf.

 I put it in the pickle to clean it up.

A few weeks later I enameled it with clear enamel.