Fold forming adds depth and dimension to metal jewelry. Learn this technique with the help of our how-to guides, tool articles, and project stories.
The 2015 Lewton-Brain Foldform Competition winners were announced on JUL 24, 2015 by the Center for Metal Arts in downstate New York. This video shows winners and Jurors’ Choice selections from among entries received from artists around the world. JURORS:…
A Beads Baubles and Jewels project. Expand your jewelry-making skills and give your pieces stunning dimension with the Rueger Fold technique that allows for several design variations. Additional instructions on this project and other fold forming techniques are available in…
Winners of the inaugural Lewton-Brain Foldform Competition were announced on Aug 6, 2012 at the 5th Annual Charles Lewton-Brain Conference hosted by the Center for Metal Arts in downstate, New York. This video showcases the winning entries and also twenty…
Expand your jewelry-making skills and give your pieces stunning dimension with the Rueger Fold technique that allows for several design variations. Read more about Fold Forming https://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/directory/library/subject/52
These are some of the metal ‘ tools that you will find useful in fold-forming. Ear muffs or plugs and safety glasses.
Master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain invented and demonstrates foldforming in this video. Foldforming is a system of metalworking that uses the metal’s nature to rapidly make shapes that resemble chased and constructed pieces, often reminiscent of natural objects such as leaves,…
Creating interest and dimension in copper through forming, bending, hammering, texturing and flame coloring. by George Goehl
Fold-forming is a hand-working technique applied to single sheets of metal to create surfaces and three-dimensional forms quickly without soldering. It relies on the metal’s plasticity and ductility to make hundreds of complex forms resembling chased, constructed, and soldered shapes. Using thin materials, you can create light, volumetric objects and surfaces. Radical changes in cross-section are possible in only three to five minutes using simple tools such as a hammer, mallet, anvil, vise, rolling mill, and your fingers.
With a simple corrugation tool and basic metalsmithing skills, you can make these great earrings. The newest toy in my studio is a Microfold Brake. I have been having a wonderful time learning what can be done with this tool, experimenting and making metalwork that combines microfolding with my other favorite techniques. I have used the Microfold Brake for bracelets, earrings, pins, boxes, a teapot, and a Hanukkah menorah, yet I feel like I am just getting started with my explorations! I find the immediacy of the tool very alluring. I also like the way the rippling corrugation can be either organic – or geometric looking, depending on how it is manipulated and
finished.
this is a video featuring the fold forming process with Large Scaled non ferrous elements. THIS is my first video upload……so bear with me as I figure out what works best. This video is low res 🙁 …..I’ll be resizing…
Metal corrugation is a unique roll-formed process whereby a precise and specific repetitive surface pattern is achieved when processing thin gauge annealed 36 -24 sheet metal or wire. Metal is processed using special tools manufactured with corresponding matching and enmeshing fluted gears that are aligned in such a manner so that the crest of one roller fills the trough of the other. Metal corrugation is a unique process NOT to be confused with the fold-forming techniques studied and highly developed by Charles Lewton-Brain..
One of the most frequent foldforming questions Charles Lewton-Brain gets is that someone’s forging hammer isn’t working well for them. See how Charles changes a commercial forging hammer to be useful for foldforming. Filmed in full HD 1080p.
Silicon carbide separating discs are superb for scoring metal for bending, particularly when the metal sheet is less than 4 or 5 cm across. While I was originally taught to use discs for catch building which involves only straight lines I discovered that they are superb for curved line scoring. Advantages include no disturbance of a textured sheet metal front surface while gaining enormous changes in plane. This is how many of my own pieces are done.
Sheet Metal Tool Modification, Look for: WISS Hand Seamer (as LAST resort BRAMEC or VISE-GRIP) sheet metal bending tools and modify as shown. Recommended for quick, tight crimping! I prefer the Wiss Hand Seamer Model HS-1 or as a LAST resort you can purchase Vise-Grip Locking Sheet Metal Tool #23 or Bramec sheet metal tool-straight handle.
When I ran a trade shop, time was money, and I often found myself sizing 50 to 60 rings in a day. When you’re doing that kind of volume, being able to quickly size up rings can make a big…
This article describes the steps to making a basic T-fold, one of the main categories of fold-forming. Numerous variations are possible from this simple starting place.
This page describes the steps to making a basic wedge T-fold
This article describes the steps to making a chased wedge T-fold. To begin with a loop is made from a rectangular piece of sheet metal. The loop is placed into the vise and the jaws clinched tight onto the loop. You can see the angle the loop is tilted to in the vise. Vary the angle to alter the results.
This fold is an example of forging on the open side, and introduces how to use hardness dams in foldforming. Dams are work hardened spots, lines, or patterns within the sheet. This form illustrates the way we can use hardness dams to direct the movement of metal under force.
One of the most intriguing, and fastest ways to make fold-forms are in the Rolled fold part of the system. Rolled folds use the special, even pressure of the rolling mill to work the metal. They are either a package folded up and put through the mill like a Heistad Cup or are set up so that one side of the fold has more layers than the other when it is put through the mill. These travel further than the side with less layers when rolled, and, restrained by them, the whole fold curves as a result. This page describes the steps to making a Plunkett fold. The Good fold is derived from a Plunkett fold. These kinds of folds work well when forged as well as in the mill.
Rolled folds are folds which utilize the rolling mill and it’s unique properties of equal, directional pressure on the plastic metal. Many pleated folds work well as do a series of flattened T-folds of various types. This one demonstrates the fold-forming priniciple of This rolled fold is called a Heistad Cup.
The boat fold branch of T-folds is an interesting avenue. It permits you to have a curving, concave table, and to produce shaped tables as well as other complex derivations. The basic boat is begun by making a wedge T-fold. After the first angle is made the loop is tipped inthe other direction and pinched again to produce the boat pillow form.
This page describes the steps to using a table insert in a T-fold. A table insert is an object, or a composition of a group of objects, inserted into the table when it is made, and then trapped. Items to try include, washers, shapes of 16 gauge iron binding wire, screws, shaped metal pieces designed for the purpose etc.
Line-folds offer a large area of exploration. In addition to the use of line-folds by themselves, it is valuable to understand them because the principles involved will show up again in many other folds. If we were making a family tree, line-folds would be near the top because they were found early in my foldforming research. Line-folds are important as a method of pleating and can be used in a series of scoring and bending to create three-dimensional forms. Forged line-folds are used in many foldforms, and frequently create shapes with strong similarities to organic forms. The following pages show a variety of examples of line-folds. As is true throughout this book, these have been chosen to illustrate the basic principles being discussed and to illustrate a few of the directions that have been explored so far. Many further investigations are possible using these basics as starting points. The most basic line-fold involves four steps.
Standing in her forming studio, surrounded by hammers, stakes, and photo equipment, metalsmith Cynthia Eid is experiencing a moment of excitement. Even though she has finessed metal into altered states for 30 years, this decisive moment is always riveting. A sheet of sterling silver gleams on the workbench while Eid ponders its destiny. Her next move will, through muscle and mastery, transform it into jewelry, hollowware, or Judaica – almost at the drop of a hammer. But long before this sterling silver adorns a body, a table, or a synagogue, Eid must listen to the metal.
The act of contraction into repetitive wrinkles or alternate ridges and grooves. When studying nature forms, corrugation is regularly seen adding innate strength to what might be otherwise considered a frail form. Corrugation has been adopted by industry and used in utilitarian fashion for the manufacture of common objects we regularly see such as packaging materials as well as industrial applications such as roofing, siding, and drainage pipes.
In 1979 and 80 I went to study at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Pforzheim West Germany at the suggestion of my teacher Christian Gaudernak, who had studied there in the early 80’s. Mistakenly believing that everyone spoke English I went to the school and was told to come back when I spoke German. Six hard weeks spent on the bare floor of an apartment.
Scoring metal is incredibly important for custom jewelry construction. It enables you to reduce the number of parts in a catch or a hollow piece, which increases strength and cuts fabrication time. The term “scoring” refers to creating a groove…
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