All righty, here's another of my jewelry projects from my Intermediate Jewelry Studio... This was a "double" assignment: 1. use the technique of chasing and repousse, 2. make an item that's meant for body adornment. I chose to make a necklace, but my teacher worried that it was going to be too "easy", too "simple". So, hence the addition of the earrings. And actually, ironically enough, I think that I like the earrings better, although the necklace is quite stunning.
Also, for this project, I handmade the clasp and the earring findings. Everything is sterling silver.
And as for the techniques... the are actually two separate techniques that are very often used in conjunction with one another. Chasing is basically a way to add ornate line work to the front of a piece. There is a range of tools, usually "liners" that as their name implies, are used to create in-sized lines on the metal. You would first decide what you wanted your design to be, draw that design onto you metal, the putting a liner to that design, you would hit the liner with a chasing hammer, moving the tool along the line and creating the design. Now, repousse is very similar (both chasing and repousse share and require similar tools and hammers), except roupousse is done from both the front and the back of a piece, and repousse is not used simply to create line but volume. Rounded tools are used from the back of a piece to push it forward and give it 3D form.
Over all, I really enjoyed this technique. I would definitely use it again.
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