Victoria Lansford – Blending Ancient Tradition with Modern Innovation
by Cynthia Eid
Every piece needs to go through an ‘ugly’ stage. If that doesn’t happen, then I haven’t taken enough risk with the piece. It’s not appealing to make a piece unless I am doing something new, which means taking a chance. It would be easier and faster to simply make a variation of the last piece I made, but that just isn’t interesting enough to invest the time in making.
In conversation, Victoria Lansford* and I have spoken about the way that her contemporary technical skills and approach to historical methods of making are inseparable from her work. The five examples shared below speak to Victoria’s modern explorations of ancient filigree and repoussé.
Filigree Innovation:
Adding lyrical 3-dimensionality to delicate-looking traditional filigree wirework.
Through imagination, observation, and sheer inspiration, Victoria has not only brought filigree into the 21st century, but she has also conceived of and wrought filigree at new levels of 3-dimensionality. Part of the genius of this is that the tools are simple. It’s a matter of bending your thinking and understanding that is the critical part of the ability to add extreme form to filigree. Observing that a piece of filigree can be thought of as a piece of sheet metal when bending, curving, or forming, Victoria has not only brought her own work to new heights, she has broken down the concept into a system of steps to teach this way of thinking to students.
3D filigree and Roman chain necklace, 2010; 22k gold, sterling silver, fine silver, Koroit opal; 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.5 in 18 in. chain
Plasticine instead of Pitch:
This innovation, learned from her Georgian teacher, is a game changer!
Using a modern plastic to support metal during the chasing process saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spent melting sticky, gooey pitch around the metal. Having personally used this modern plastic clay, I can attest to how freeing it feels compared to using viscous, gummy pitch. Victoria says that there is evidence that Egyptians and Greeks employed clay for forming, but this did not survive in the practices of most contemporary artists for repoussé. I had not heard of using plasticine with repoussé until I took a class with Victoria.
Still image from a demonstration video in Victoria’s online Eastern Repoussé Extended Course
Using a Hydraulic Press:
Saving time and effort while adding impact
The high work of repoussé requires 4-7 rounds of overall “puffing” (forming) before pushing out individual areas from the back or doing any detailed chasing from the front. This is traditionally done by hammering over pitch numerous times. Bringing a hydraulic press into play saves time as well as wear and tear on the body. An even bigger advantage is that the press does not thin out the metal the way the repoussé process does, since the press pulls metal from the sides. This means that Victoria can get more height and depth in her repoussé work.
The first step in the Eastern repoussé technique is to line the interior and exterior design lines. The next step is to puff out the entire shape to the desired
background height – in this case the level behind the sun rays. Instead of hammering this background height, I used a Bonny Doon 20-Ton Mark III Electric
Hydraulic Press then continued hammering the other levels of the sun, its rays, and lettering by hand.
Designing and Selling Her Own Repoussé tools:
Technology plus craftsmanship
Victoria joins an elite group of women metalsmith entrepreneurs who have designed their own tools to make it easy for people to learn her technique for repousse. Fretz uses CNC and handwork to make Victoria’s chasing tools, and most of them are perfect. Nevertheless, each and every tool passes through her hands for quality checking. Her son, Skyler, files any sharp edges on the undersides of the necks. Victoria tests all the line tools. If any are too thick or thin, they are filed or reshaped, and then sanded and repolished. Despite the technology that is used to make these tools, nothing beats the hand-and-eye check of the intrepid tool designer.
Metalsmithing Coupled with Digital Technology:
Creating contemporary book art
Victoria’s unique book, Giving Voice, combines several of her talents and influences—metalsmithing, Medieval illumination, Egyptian art, digital animation and jazz. While the hardback book features a large piece of mokume gané repoussé, she also created an award-winning, animated Apple Book version.
For the cover, I took hundreds and hundreds of still photos of that Eastern repoussé in process, from flat sheet to completely finished, and then put them together in animation.
lettering during the process.
Using Digital Technology:
Overcoming time and space limitations of traditional in-person teaching
Victoria is an early pioneer of expanding educational horizons through digital platforms. Traditional in-person courses are limited in time, and often end with tired students rushing to complete as much work as possible. By filming demonstrations, she enables each student to watch (and rewatch!) demonstrations and work at their own pace, allowing as much time as needed before progressing to the next step. Through a digital platform, students can ask questions and get individual help on a daily basis. This system also allows students to be in any time zone and any part of the world, creating greater access to Victoria’s extensive knowledge and experience. And in this class, every student gets a “front row seat” to demonstrations, able to see each step closely and clearly, and as slowly and repeatedly as they wish.
Victoria’s sense of adventure as she creates her uniquely personal art to combine both ancient and contemporary techniques. Whether we call it innovation, exploration, originality, or modernization, Victoria Lansford is propelling the 21st century frontier of the ancient techniques of filigree and repoussé.
*This essay was based on a conversation on August 12, 2024. All quotations from Victoria are from this conversation.
Cynthia Eid’s award-winning approach to metalwork emphasizes the fluid movement, form, and joining of metal, along with colorful enamels – showcasing her skills through sculptural jewelry and hollowware.
Radiant Echoes: The Metal Mastery of Victoria Lansford showcases the artist’s journey through over three decades of ground-breaking applications of historical metalsmithing techniques. This retrospective publication comprehensively not only explores Lansford’s endless ability with complex metalsmithing techniques including filigree, Eastern repoussé, and granulation, but also speaks to how her skill and vision marry in the creation of objects that filters tradition through a contemporary lens. Simultaneously an artist, alchemist, and shaman, Lansford brings together the familiar with the unexpected through creative work that rethinks the millennia-old practice of turning raw materials into precious objects.
The book features over 150 images of art jewelry, art objects, and large-scale metalwork drawn from across Lansford’s career as well as a comprehensive glossary of her techniques used, offering a unique opportunity for readers to explore the evolution of Lansford’s creativity and craftsmanship. Radiant Echoes will make a fantastic addition to the library of anyone who loves jewelry, sculpture, metalsmithing, or simply contemplating beautiful objects.
Radiant Echoes includes new essays by curators, scholars, and artists including Kate Bonansinga, Cynthia Eid, Rauni Higson, Elyse Zorn Karlin, Victoria Lansford, and Jane Milosch, with consulting editor Emily Zilber.
Full color, casebound, 186+ pages
ISBN 978-0-9821833-6-6
Ships mid-November, 2024
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