Media Reviews: Chasing and Repoussé

Chasing and Repoussé: Methods Ancient and Modern
By Nancy Megan Corwin
Published by Brynmorgen Press
Hardback, 184 pages. Price $35

This is a treasure trove of information about chasing and repoussé— one of the most underrated, yet versatile, accessible, and immediate metalworking techniques there is. With minimal equipment, thousands of fantastic forms, designs, and textures are available to an artist with nothing more than a sheet of metal, some punches, a hammer, and a pitch pot.

In nine chapters, author Nancy Megan Corwin discusses materials and tools, studio setups, pitch and its uses, technique basics, and beyond. Full color photography illustrates examples of artists’ works and step by step techniques, which are also accompanied with drawings and diagrams for clearer understanding. I particularly appreciated the appendix on tool making, plus the encyclopedia of examples of Japanese chasing tools, how to make them, and what they are called. Very helpful is the photograph of an actual strip of tempered steel which accurately illustrates the important color change of the tool steel for proper tempering when making punches in the studio. Also covered are techniques for creating hollowforms for readers who are ready to move toward advanced techniques.

Inspiring artist profiles and a generous gallery of works show the broad range of possibilities of chasing and repoussé. With the exception of a few typographic errors, I found this book to be perfectly inspiring — so much so that after I browsed
through it the first time, I pulled out my pitch pot and returned to a technique I hadn’t thought of in years. It was a joy.

–Helen Driggs

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