Home / Recent Work / Surprise, brass repousse and chasing, piece of wild cherry tree. 5" x 7" x 4" / Surprise, how it was made 34
1. Starting with an oval piece of annealed 16 gauge brass sheet for the head.
2. shaping the head with the hydraulic press.
3. Using raising techniques to bring up the sides. This is actually more difficult to do on a small piece like this than on one several times as big.
4. Annealing. These first three steps had to be repeated several times to get the head small enough.
5. A few steps later, showing a punch and the results of using it with the hydraulic press to push out the nose.
6. More forming to get the curve correct.
7. Finally, after seven stages of punching and raising, the sides have come around enough.
8. Punching out the nose to get the proper shape, using a sand bag.
9. eyes punched in some from the outside, and a small hole drilled for the mouth.
10. I used a tapered punch to push out and enlarge the mouth from the inside.
11. pushing out some areas of the face that need it.
12. The hollow form has been filled with micro-crystalline wax.
13. By partially melting the wax on both surfaces, the face is adhered to a wax base.
14. The repoussé part (Pushing the metal out from behind) having been done, it's time for the chasing (pushing the metal in from the outside). 
15. More chasing, forming the area around the mouth.