Fold Form Inventor to Make Rare New York Appearance

Online, May 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The Center for Metal Arts will once again host Canadian master goldsmith Charles Lewton-Brain this July with two comprehensive workshops on the fold form technique of working in sheet material. The workshops are open to jewelers, sculptors, artisans in the metal arts, and the public. Fold forming as a process has been incorporated in jewelry design, sculptural forms, and even architectural metals since its invention in 1985.

The Center for Metal Arts is offering two workshops with Lewton-Brain, with two days of Fold-Form Demonstrations on July 21-22, and two days of Hands-On Workbench Time on July 23-24, 2011. The Center for Metal Arts also offers a Full Seminar Package for people who would like to take in both events.

In the July 21-22 workshop, Lewton-Brain will demonstrate his entire system of hundreds of folds, in two days. Lewton-Brain will demonstrate all of the families of folds, and many variations. T-folds, cross folds, pleated folds, woven folds, sheared and formed star folds, chased wedge t-folds, Plunkett folds, and more. Participants are encouraged to bring questions, a sketchpad, and a camera, to document techniques for their own work.

In the July 23-24 workshop, the workshop provides individual work stations with anvil, tooling, and copper for two days of working hands-on with the fold forms. Participants will learn to make folds in each of the main categories. Participants can work at their own level, and try new folds and variations under Charles Lewton-Brain's guidance.

Charles Lewton-Brain is a distinguished Fellow of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. He has lectured and taught in England, Germany, the United States, Canada and Australia. He is a consultant on the jewelry field, and is the long-time Head of the Jewelry/Metals Program at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Fold forming has been acknowledged by The British Museum Research Lab and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise as an innovation in metal design work. The process is extremely efficient and rapid, with many forms completed in three to seven minutes. Complex relief forms are made from sheets of metal, often in one annealing. Forms made with this method resemble chased, constructed, or soldered forms, and the process translates into most metals, including steel. Tools are simple: fingers, simple hand tools, a hammer, anvil and, if desired, a rolling mill.

Fold forming has developed a great deal since 1985. This process is not just for jewelers anymore. Fold forms are beautiful in themselves, but they can also be used as a component of more complex pieces. Once you have mastered the folds, you can go on to further developments, like slicing up a fold form, manipulating the elements and re-soldering, or using it as an element in a constructed structure. By chasing on air in a T-folding technique, hours may be cut from a chasing procedure. Fold forming also offers a major new series of procedures for production work. By making a number of fold forms and experimenting, an understanding of process in metal forming is achieved more rapidly than in conventional working methods.

Lewton-Brain gives only a few workshops a year outside of his teaching at the Alberta College of Art and Design. This summer he offers a workshop series after the SNAG conference in Seattle Washington, one at the Alberta College of Art and Design, a workshop series in Massachusetts, and two workshops at the Center for Metal Arts in Florida, NY. The Center for Metal Arts offers easy online registration at http://www.centerformetalarts.com, and also welcomes phone registration or inquiries about the event.

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The Center for Metal Arts holds blacksmithing and other metal arts workshops for artisans, designers and the public. Located one hour north of New York City, The Center for Metal Arts offers an opportunity to work hot metal at the forge and anvil.