Repoussé or
repoussage is a
metalworkingMetalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewellery. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...
technique in which a malleable
metalA metal is a chemical element that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat, forms cations and ionic bonds with non-metals. In chemistry, a metal is an element, compound, or alloy characterized by high electrical conductivity. In a metal, atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions...
is ornamented or shaped by
hammerA hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head,...
ing from the reverse side. There are few techniques that offer such diversity of expression while still being relatively economical.
Chasing is the opposite technique to repoussé, and the two are used in conjunction to create a finished piece. It is also known as
embossing.
While repoussé is used to work on the reverse of the metal to form a raised design on the front, chasing is used to refine the design on the front of the work by sinking the metal. The term chasing is derived from the noun "chase", which refers to a groove, furrow, channel or indentation. The adjectival form is "chased work".
The techniques of repoussé and chasing utilise the
plasticityPlasticity generally means ability to be shaped or formed. More specific meanings include:In science...
of metal, forming shapes by degrees. There is no loss of metal in the process, as it is stretched locally and the surface remains continuous. The process is relatively slow, but a maximum of form is achieved, with one continuous surface of sheet metal of essentially the same thickness. Direct contact of the tools used is usually visible in the result, a condition not always apparent in other techniques, where all evidence of the working method is eliminated.
Etymology
The word repoussé is
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
and means "pushed up", ultimately from
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
pulsare, which means "to push". Repoussage is actually the correct
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
to refer to the technique, with repoussé being an adjective referring to a piece to which the technique has been applied (e.g. "repoussé work", "repoussé piece"); however, in English it has become common to use repoussé as a noun, and this usage is reflected in this article.
Famous works
A famous contemporary
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
created with this technique is the
Statue of LibertyThe Statue of Liberty , officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World , dedicated on October 28, 1886, is a monument commemorating the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, given to the United States by the people of France to represent the friendship...
in
Upper New York BayUpper New York Bay, sometimes called Upper New York Harbor or the Upper Bay, is the northern area of New York Harbor inside The Narrows...
. The statue was formed by
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
repoussé in sections using wooden structures to shape each piece during the hammering process.
A second example of monumental
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
repoussé sculpture is
Portlandiaright|thumb|300px|PortlandiaPortlandia is a sculpture by Raymond Kaskey located above the entrance of Michael Graves' Portland Building in downtown Portland, Oregon at 1120 SW 5th Avenue...
by
Raymond KaskeyRaymond Kaskey is an American sculptor.He was born in Pittsburgh. He studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University...
, which was installed in 1985 in downtown
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
.
A third example, and one from antiquity, is the late Eighteenth Dynasty mummy mask of
TutankhamunTutankhamun , Egyptian was an Egyptian Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
. The lapis lazuli and other stones were inlaid in chased areas after the height of the form was completed. The majority of the mask was formed using the technique of repoussé from what appears to be a single sheet of gold (the ceremonial beard,
NekhbetIn Egyptian mythology, Nekhbet was an early predynastic local goddess who was the patron of the city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb...
vulture, and
UraeusThe Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting cobra , used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt.The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet, one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, who often was...
were attached separately).
History
The techniques of repoussé date from Antiquity and have been used widely with
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
and
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
for fine detailed work and with
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
,
tinTin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead, like the two possible oxidation states +2 and +4...
, and
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
for larger sculptures. Among the most famous classical pieces using this technique are the
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
armour plates from the 3rd century BC.
During the
3rd millennium BCThe 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age.It represents a period of time in which imperialism, or the desire to conquer, grew to prominence, in the city states of the Middle East, but also throughout Eurasia, with Indo-European expansion to Anatolia, Europe and Central Asia. The...
, in the Middle East, a variety of semi-mass production methods were introduced to avoid repetitive free-hand work. With the simplest technique, sheet gold could be pressed into designs carved in
intaglio in stone, bone, metal or even materials such as jet. The gold could be worked into the designs with wood tools or, more commonly, by hammering a wax or lead "force" over it.
The alternative to pressing gold sheet into a die is to work it over a design in cameo relief. Here the detail would be greater on the back of the final design, so some final chasing from the front was often carried out to sharpen the detail. The use of patterned punches dates back to the first half of the
2nd millennium BCThe 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot...
, if not far earlier. The simplest patterned punches were produced by loops or scrolls of wire. By Hellenistic times, combined punches and dies were in use.
In 1400 BC, the Egyptian
AmarnaThe site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor...
period, resin and mud for repoussé backing was in use.
In 400 BC, the Greeks were using Beeswax for filler in repoussé.
Repoussé and chasing are commonly used in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
to create objects such as water vessels. These vessels are generally made using sheets of
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
or
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
.
During the Hopewell and
MississippianThe Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
periods of the American
SoutheastThe US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, but the Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region of the United States, and organizations that need to subdivide the US are free to define a "Southeast" region to fit their needs...
and
MidwestThe Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
goods of repoussé copper were fashioned as ritual regalia and eventually used in prestige burials. Examples have been found with many S.E.C.C. designs such as Bi-lobed arrow motif headdresses and falcon dancer plaques. Although examples have been found in a widely scattered area (
SpiroSpiro Mounds is one of the most important pre-Columbian archaeological sites in the United States. Located in Eastern Oklahoma near the modern town of Spiro, it is under the protection of the Oklahoma Historical Society and open to the public....
,
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
,
EtowahEtowah Indian Mounds is an archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia south of Cartersville, Georgia in the United States. The site sits on the north shore of the Etowah River. Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.-Site Description:There...
,
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
, and
MoundvilleMoundville Archaeological Site, also known as the Moundville Archaeological Park, is a Mississippian site on the Black Warrior River in Hale County, near the town of Moundville. Extensive archaeological investigation has shown that the site was the political and ceremonial center of a regionally...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
), most are in what is known as the
Braden Style, thought to have originated at the
CahokiaCahokia is the site of an ancient indigenous city near Collinsville, Illinois. In the American Bottom floodplain, it is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. The site included 120 man-made earthen mounds over an area of six square miles, although only 80 survive...
Site in
Collinsville, IllinoisCollinsville is a city located mainly in Madison County, and partially in St. Clair County, both in Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 24,707. Collinsville is approximately 12 miles from St. Louis, Missouri and is considered part of that city's Metro-East area...
.
Methods
It can take some time to create jewellery using Repoussé and chasing, although with practice, complex and delicate pieces can be made which would be virtually impossible to complete using any other method. It takes a lot of time due to the repetition of a number of time-consuming stages: the preparation of a sheet by
annealingAnnealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness. It is a process that produces conditions by heating to above the re-crystallization temperature and maintaining a suitable temperature,...
; cleaning to remove the
pitchPitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
between annealing and work; setting up; and careful work with punches.
One method of repoussé and chasing is to place a thin sheet of metal on a bowl of heated Pitch. The pitch is slightly soft, and hardens when cooled, or becomes liquefied when heated. The purpose of using pitch is to provide a solid base to work on, whilst allowing the metal to be pushed out and shaped without obstruction. The pitch is best worked on in a
pitch bowl. This is a
cast ironCast iron usually refers to grey iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The colour of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due to its carbide impurities which...
bowl which sits on a bag stuffed with
sandSand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain...
or a similar substance. This allows for greater stability,
rotationA rotation is a movement of an object in a circular motion. A two-dimensional object rotates around a center of rotation. A three-dimensional object rotates around a line called an axis. If the axis of rotation is within the body, the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin—which implies...
and angling. The pitch is heated using a hairdryer, or an industrial blowdryer. If the pitch is too hard, the metal will be thinned. If it is too soft, you have very little control over the form. Good pitch is hard enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to yield.
SteelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
toolA broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other. The most basic tools are simple machines. For example, a crowbar simply functions as a lever. The further out from the pivot point, the more...
s are used to work the metal. A "liner" is a steel rod with a very thin, slightly rounded end, that is used to create the initial lines on the metal. The liner is hit on the end with a
chasing hammer, pushing a thin line of metal into the pitch. The side facing up will consequently be the front of the piece. Once all the lines have been chased, the metal is then turned over on the pitch, and repoussé is then used to push the metal so that it extrudes on the front of the finished piece. The piece of metal is turned and worked many times, with numerous tools, before the final design is achieved.
Once a fairly large shape is inverted, it can be filled in with warm pitch to help maintain its shape. The pitch should be allowed to set in the forms before the piece is placed back on the pitch. Every time the metal is removed from the pitch bowl, it needs to be cleaned and re-annealed.
TurpentineTurpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
is used to remove the pitch, and a blow torch can also be used to burn it off.
Tools
There are hundreds of tools which can be used. They are generally made by the jeweller/crafts person. They are typically made from bars of
tool steelTool steel refers to a variety of carbon and alloy steels that are particularly well-suited to be made into tools. Their suitability comes from their distinctive hardness, resistance to abrasion, their ability to hold a cutting edge, and/or their resistance to deformation at elevated temperatures...
, which is
forgeA forge is the workplace of a smith or a blacksmith. A forge is sometimes referred to as a smithy.The basic smithy contains a forge, also known as a hearth, for heating metals. The forge heats the workpiece to a malleable temperature or to the point where work hardening no longer occurs. The...
d and tempered at the tip. A
sawA saw is a tool that uses a hard blade or wire with an abrasive edge to cut through softer materials. The cutting edge of a saw is either a serrated blade or an abrasive...
can be used to cut designs into the tip for making patterns, or the tool can be hammered onto a patterned surface, which will indent the tip. The end of the tool which is to be hammered should be bevelled to allow for expansion of the metal from repeated hammering. Some of the main styles of tool include:
Liners,
planishers,
matting, and
doming. Liners have thin tips, which are slightly rounded. If they are too thin they will cut the metal. They are used in the initial marking out of the design, and in the finishing stages to refine any thin outlines. Planishers have smooth, flat tips which are used for pushing out large, flat areas of metal. Matting tools have patterns cut into them, and provide detail to areas of the design. Matting tools can also be made by filing a thin line around a steel bar, hardening it, then snapping it. This will result in a fine grain pattern. Doming tools push out rounded areas of metal, and can either be round or oval, quite pointed or almost flat. An oxyacetylene torch is required for heating the steel sufficiently for forging. The more tools available, the easier it is to create a detailed, accurate piece.
Recipes for pitch
The traditional working surface is chaser's pitch which is usually a composition combining three substances: pure pitch, a
filler (or stiffener), and an
emollientEmollients are substances that soften and soothe the skin. They are used to correct dryness and scaling of the skin. They are a key component in the manufacture of lipstick, lotions, and other cosmetic products....
(softening medium).
There are a number of different recipes for making chaser's pitch.
One example is:
- 16 parts pitch
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
- 20 parts plaster of Paris
- 4 parts resin
Resin is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. It is valued for its chemical constituents and uses, such as varnishes and adhesives, as an important source of raw materials for organic synthesis, or for incense and perfume. Fossilized resins are the source of amber...
- 1 part tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.Rendered fat...
The pitch is heated until molten. Plaster of Paris is added a small amount at a time. Resin and tallow are then mixed in.