Fold forming - question on how to curve!

[silver70]

Hi all,

I've just tried my first fold form piece. I watched a video from rio grande and tried to replicate their instructions but mine did not work. The 'ends' on their piece started to close in on themselves after each hammering unit but mine stayed flat! I rescued it into a leaf and am fairly pleased with my first attempt but am a little puzzled at why mine didn't fold in?! Any ideas?

[MeadMoon]

Not sure where to start. What size & thickness of metal were you using? Was it fully annealed? Perhaps you weren't hammering hard enough? It does take some force and results may not be immediate, ie. several cycles of hammer/anneal may be needed before the piece starts to bend appreciably.

Do you have the Charles Lewton-Brain book? It is extremely good and is how I started with fold forming.

[CJ57]

Not sure where to start. What size & thickness of metal were you using? Was it fully annealed? Perhaps you weren't hammering hard enough? It does take some force and results may not be immediate, ie. several cycles of hammer/anneal may be needed before the piece starts to bend appreciably.

Do you have the Charles Lewton-Brain book? It is extremely good and is how I started with fold forming.

You've said pretty much what I said in an email Elaine. I find the problem with most of the videos Rio Grande produce is they make things look really easy when they aren't!
The book is much better and has step by step pictures, it's getting a feel for the process. I found it cheaper to buy from amazon US.
The other thing I noted was that the hammer used is really key and Rio Grande called it something completely different to what was actually pictured, this is the one I have and it is capable of many of the projects in the book http://www.suttontools.co.uk/creasing-hammer-by-picard-200g.html.
It is also much easier in copper than silver, I've done a few pieces in silver now but more often I use folds, pin tucks and channels as detail or accents because it's hard work

[theresa]

It's also a lot easier when you use fine silver. Try Soham Harrison on YouTube - some excellent tutorials on fold forming. It's where I got the bug!

[silver70]

Thanks all - I used 0.4mm copper - annealed between cycles of hammering. Maybe need a new hammer and some more force!! Thanks will check out all the suggestions.

[CJ57]

Some of the work in the book is very inspiring and it's gives lists of tools and photographs so there is no doubt on the different names between the US and UK
http://www.amazon.com/Foldforming-Charles-Lewton-Brain/dp/1929565267/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408205735&sr=1-1&keywords=fold+forming that's a good deal just now and I think much cheaper than I managed to buy it

[ps_bond]

It's not something I do very often, but a bunch of us had a play day yesterday fold forming. These 2 were 0.5x50x50mm brass, worked over mostly with the bordering hammer mentioned earlier and a modified chipping hammer (oh, and a Clarke dead-blow mallet for flattening things).

6478

Fun, but doesn't really fit with what I'm up to.

[silver70]

They are lovely!

[CJ57]

These were a couple of my pieces in silver which I sold
6479 6480

[silver70]

Fabulous pieces :)

[theresa]

6482Nice flowers Peter. I'm going to have a go at that shape. Never tried a 4 petal one before!6481
This is the most complicated (for me) that I have tried so far apart from fiddling with different copper shapes.

[silver70]

Again a beautiful piece!

[MeadMoon]

I once tried to see how small I could go and made these copper and silver earrings - the flowers are 25mm x 30mm.
6483

[ps_bond]

Is that the same star fold as I started with? They're rather nice. Sarah Macrae was showing some *really* tiny earrings on Saturday, don't think they were more than 10mm.

[MeadMoon]

Thank you Peter. Yes, it is the star fold. Three of the "petals" are hammered on the closed edge and the other one on the open edge.

[silver70]

Lovely earrings too!