What to expect in a 5 day intensive chasing and repoussé workshop with Saign Charlestein
Whether you’ve signed up for the upcoming workshop on May 12th, are thinking about signing up, or are just curious, this will explain what to expect in my 5 day intensive chasing and repoussé workshop. I understand that students will be coming in with different skill sets, anywhere from complete novices to well advanced, so I have a skill assessment exercise that everyone will complete. Once I can assess your skill level, then I will assign you a project that will focus on what I think you benefit from the most. I am also open to guiding you through a design of your choice, as long as it is fitting for the time period and proper advancement of your skills. This is a fairly unique way of teaching, as most workshops have either a set lesson plan, or a very free and more unstructured nature. While I believe that this approach will be more work for me, everyone will gain more from it, and go home satisfied. If you would like to bring your own design, please keep in mind that we will be using 8” pitch bowls, and 4.5” copper blanks will be provided. So if the design is larger, please bring your own larger pitch container and material to work on. Instead of just telling students what to use and when, I will be challenging each student to understand the fundamentals of moving metal, and why to use specific tools to achieve the desired results. I will focus on proper tool holding, hammering workstation setup, and ergonomics, so that you can enjoy a long prosperous journey with chasing and repoussé while limiting the chance of injury. We will also be covering pitch preparation, and tool making, so that you will have the basic know how to make that specialized tool you need for that certain job. I will teach the traditional western method of chasing and repoussé, while also having exercises of creating relief while only chasing from the front, never touching the back with a tool. I believe both techniques are very important to understand, but 80% of your finished product is a result of what happens on the front. So I will be stressing fine tool control, while modeling and planishing. I will be supplying student sets, of my chasing tools that will finish each of the many designs that I will have to assign, as well as 3 weights of my forged cross pien chasing hammers for each student to use. As I believe that 1 hammer size isn’t enough to achieve the best work, and you will learn when to use different hammers with different tools and in different situations. If you have your own tools and hammers, please feel free to bring them, but they are not required. Student will also be given a 20% discount towards tools purchased in the class. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask. I hope to see you in May!
