Fold Forming Adventure

by loiskmartens on September 19, 2012

 

A talented young gentleman, about to become a father for the first time, wanted a marvelous gift for his much loved and very gifted wife.  He liked a fold formed pendant called Pure Treasure I.

Pure Treasure I

The central part of the pendant is fold formed pure gold and has four puncture holes through which a fine silver ribbon winds its way from front to back and around the central body.  This is not a small pendant.  It is 1 1/4 in (32 mm) wide and 2 5/8 in (62 mm) high. But he thought that adding a rose gold ribbon that would intertwine with the silver ribbon would add more color and movement and would enrich the pendant.

Note to fold formers:  I take extensive notes for all of the fold formed jewelry that I make so as to be able to produce a similar object on request.  For the original Pure Treasure I pendant I traced around the metal shape before it was fold formed and determined the fold lines, recorded the thickness and weight of the plate and the direction of and number of pulls through the rolling mill.  I re-melted and folded and pulled the pure gold central element of the new pendant three times before arriving to an acceptable equivalent of the original.  Beware that a variation in thickness of the plate of less than 1/10 of a millimeter from the original, upon being folded and pulled, will probably produce a nice form but be considerably different from the original.  Actually any variation whatsoever in the weight, the placement of the folds, the distance between the cylinders of the rolling mill – any difference from the original model will be expanded in the rolling process.

Pure Treasure I Pure Treasure I, original, front

 

Pure Treasure I, custom order Pure Treasure I, custom order, front

 

Pure Treasure I, back Pure Treasure I, original, back

 

Pure Treasure Pendant I Pure Treasure I, custom order, back

 

The client was right.  The resulting pendant is more intricate (interesting) for color and movement.  Serendipity determined that with this variant the back of the pendant would become as beautiful as the front, so now there is no defined front or back and the pendant can be worn indifferently.

 

{ 0 comments }

loiskmartens

Latest posts by loiskmartens (see all)

Fold Forming

by loiskmartens on August 22, 2012

Fold forming is a technique for jewelry creation developed principally by Charles Lewton-Brain in the mid 1980’s.

It is a modern procedure and a revolutionary method of metalsmithing.  It is based on the concept of using the characteristics of the metal to achieve a form.  There are several divisions of fold forming.  The specific technique that I use is called rolled fold.

In the rolled fold a sheet of metal is folded one or more times.  The folded metal is run through the rolling mill and then unfolded.  A rolling mill has two parallel steel cylinders.  The top cylinder can be lowered against the bottom cylinder.  The metal run through the mill becomes progressively thinner as the distance between the cylinders decreases.  The areas with more layers – thicker – will stretch more than thin areas.  The resulting form may have some very thin areas but the curved lines that are a result of rolling give structural strength.  The rolled fold piece is much stronger that a sheet of metal of the same area and thickness.

"Whipped Cream"

The extraordinary volumes produced with the rolled fold method yield striking and visually intriguing forms.  The lines are organic and flowing, seemingly repetitive, but never the same.  Each piece of jewelry is individually hand crafted.   A design can be reproduced but there will be slight variations in the product. This means that no two pieces of jewelry will be identical.

I have fold formed sterling silver, 18K yellow gold and 24K gold.  The physical properties of these metals are very different.

 

Bracelet "Earthquake"Sterling silver is fluid and can yield spectacular volumes.

 

 

 

 

Gold Pendant "Waves"

 

 

18K yellow gold work hardens quickly and must be annealed frequently during the folding, milling and unfolding.

 

 

 

 

Pendant "Pure Treasure II"24K gold does work harden to some extent.  Considering the softness of pure gold, the increased hardness can be an advantage during unfolding.

 

{ 1 comment }

loiskmartens

Latest posts by loiskmartens (see all)

What Happened?

May 8, 2011

My mother-in-law’s most important jewelry status statement was her 1 ct diamond ring.  The stone was mounted in a fairly standard 1950’s white gold prong setting.  I was pleased to inherit this ring. Several years later two of the prongs began snagging my clothes.  The lateral photo shows noticeable air between the prong and the […]

Read the full article →

Counter Blog to Jamie Hall’s Cuttlefish Casting Blog

February 28, 2010

Cuttlefish bone casting is a form of gravity casting and was used thousands of years ago by the Chinese and the Greeks, among other peoples.  Logically the method was developed in geographical areas that were near the sea or ocean and therefore had access to cuttlefish bone.  Landlocked areas used clay, sand or tuff stone […]

Read the full article →

Through a Glass, Darkly…

January 12, 2010

In taking photos of my jewelry I have generally used a setup where the object is placed on non-reflective glass elevated above a gradient background.  All of the photos on my web site were done in this way, which gave the site a homogeneous look and a “serious” gallery exposition for the jewelry.  For Etsy […]

Read the full article →

New Years in July

August 1, 2009

For studio jewelers in Italy August represents the end of the jewelry making year.  Metals, stones and findings dealers close for the entire month.  Some have advised us that they will not reopen until the second week of September.  The newspapers do not even quote the prices of precious metals on the financial page. We […]

Read the full article →

Front Page Listing on Etsy

June 15, 2009

On Saturday, June 6, at 10 p.m. EST, one of my jewelry pieces – a silver wolf head ring – was put on the front page list made by Etsy.  YEAH!  True, probably 10 p.m. on a Saturday evening isn’t prime viewing time but my store has only been open a couple of months and […]

Read the full article →

The View out my Jewelry Lab Window

May 26, 2009

A few years ago a friend made an addition to my modest collection of roses.  His gift was a rose plant by the name of Rita Levi-Montalcini which I planted by my jewelry lab window.  It is a floribunda and blooms constantly and profusely ten months of the year.  The blooms are an attractive pink […]

Read the full article →

Rings for the Earth Exhibition

March 24, 2009

I have just seen the Rings for Planet Earth Exhibition at the Alternatives Gallery in Rome, Italy. Fourteen international artists made one or more rings centered around this theme. There was beauty for the eye and food for thought. Here is just a taste of what I saw. Stefano Marchetti “Nuvola Nera di Smog” – […]

Read the full article →

Jewelry Photography III – Pixel Power?

March 10, 2009

I think that this will be the last time that I write about the photographic aspects of presenting jewelry unless I run into some thing major with the photos. But I did want to talk about sizing in the sense of number of pixels per side. The photos for my jewelry store on-line are 457 […]

Read the full article →

WordPress Admin