Customer Reviews

Chasing & Repoussé

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nancy Megan Corwin's book is an excellent addition to any metalsmith's library. Written in clear and concise language, the book describes in detain myriad of methods used in chasing and repousse. What makes this book even more interesting and in my opinion valuable is the incorporation of modern methods and technology into her discussion of this field. The volume is further enhanced by gorgeous gallery shots.

I am a jewelry hobbyist and found this to be exactly what I have been searching for to learn repousse. The photos and the quality of book are outstanding. There are easy to follow instructions for the beginner and inspirations for delving further into the art. There is detailed information on all aspects of repousee and chasing from tool and material use to design considerations to a first project and even fabrication of your own tools. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about or practicing repousse.

Excellent. The best book written on the subject so far. Well written and illustrated with good quality photos detailing how to make tools, select pitch, and general details of how to carry out the mount the work in the pitch, use the tools and clean up the art work after removal from the pitch bowl without getting pitch all over the place. Also contains a gallery of work produced by master craftpersons.

Only adverse comment is that the photo showing how to grind tools on a grinding wheel is poor workshop practise and is dangerous.

This book is fantastic. It has a wealth of knowledge on so many aspects of chasing & repousse with stunning examples, inspiration & step by step process shots. Its highly useful. I had never done chasing & repousse properly before and I have now used it in my final project at uni.... this book has allowed me to achieve a form that is really good!! (In fact, I had originally intended to press form the piece, but then I saw that I could get more variety this way - and so I pressed formed it to a low relief and repousse'd the rest.... as it turns out, I wish I'd done the whole thing with chasing & repousse and this book! It would have given me more control over the final shape and form. This book TAUGHT me, FROM SCRATCH, how to do all of this!!) I'm now a big fan of chasing & repousse. The things you can do once you start to know how seem overwhelming. This book also teaches you to make your own tools - which I did and highly recommend you do. It allows you to customize your tools to your needs and it also gives you exactly what you need when you need it. Learning to make your own tools saves you a fortune and also gives you a variety of special tools that make work easier and more efficient. Its also very satisfying! (O: (And can be applied to all sorts of other metalworking things - like hammers, metal blocks, tools for stone setting etc.. loads of things you can make once you know how to forge & make your own steel tools)
Highly recommend this for a good knowledge of this technique and also a better understanding of metal/silver working properties.. (Which has helped to improve other aspects of my metalworking skills)
There are also lots of gallery pictures - always good!

This book covers all aspects of the subject in a simple straightforward manner and is to be reccomended to jewellers interested in dimensional construction.

This offers everything I look for in a technique book. It works in an orderly progression through every step in this classic metalworking process. Corwin starts with the metals themselves: copper, silver, and gold, of course, including the recent Argentium silver alloy; Japanese alloys (shibuichi and shakudo) and mokume gane; even aluminum, steel and niobium. Next, Corwin talks about pitch and mounting the workpiece in the pitch, the step that creates the support needed for producing fine detail. Hammers, punches (in wood and plastic as well as steel), stamps, stakes and more come next, the tools of this classic trade. Given those elements, Corwin the presents the techniques that combine them into beautiful and useful objects.

The far edges of any craft cross over into other, related crafts, and Corwin mentions some of those: raising, die-forming, rolling mill techniques, stone-setting, assembly of multiple pieces into 3-D forms, and more. She even presents the tool-making process in the same detail, everything from the tool steels themselves to forming, polishing, and tempering. Of course, books like this double as galleries of masterworks, and this shows beautiful and inspiring examples on nearly every page, not just in the forty pages dedicated to the artists and their artworks. Even readers who care only about products, not process will find plenty to enjoy here.

This book's biggest feature, though, has no easy description. When I came to the end, I thought about how I'd start my first project, mentally going through all the steps. Given only a little background in metalworking basics, this book seemed to cover everything in thorough and friendly manner. I've seen a lot of how-to books in various fields, and just about always come away feeling that some step somewhere remains just a bit mysterious. Not here. This really does seem to be as complete as its title suggests, making it nearly unique among how-to books of all kinds. I can't wait to get started.

- wiredweird

I am very happy with this book. The pictures are well done. The tools are explained and the process is described in detail. There are many, many hints on ways to make it work for you. I was escpecially thrilled to see the wide variety of examples provided throughout.

Well Done!

I've been going to school for three years learning about metal and how to move it. This book opened my eyes further and has expanded my skills and aspirations. This week I used the shaped pitch to work on a large bowl. I also used plasticine as a support for some detail work avoiding the hot and messy business of removing pitch for some minor/focused adjustments of the shape. The methods are beautifully and clearly photographed. You can see what I'm doing at [...].

The gallery of finished work is inspiring, this is a must have for anyone making metal jewelry and tableware.

This book has clear instruction and many illustrations.
The illustrations include techniques, example objects of the techniques, historic and contemporary art made by chasing and repousse.
If you want to learn to do chasing and repousse this book tells you how in an effective manner.

This book is a real trap!
I have it sitting in my lounge room and as I walked past this morning I thought I would look over it as I drank my morning coffee. Wrong! Well actually I did do that but also lost the following two hours as I read snippets from various chapters and looked over all of the wonderful photographs and day dreamed about how great it would be to be able to make the objects in them.
The really good thing about this book is that it does make this seem possible. It does not overwhelm with technical jargon or equipment which is out of the realms of mortal man (or woman) to purchase.