Micro Chasing Spring

After becoming slightly obsessed with a chased gold cylinder from ancient Nubia that I saw last summer, I began experimenting with what I call micro chasing. I created this chased bead from seamless, sterling tubing (Rio Grande’s largest diameter). By slightly altering the order of Eastern repoussé steps I employ to refine my repoussé pieces from the front, I could wildly undercut this vine work and pop out the relief, working exclusively from the outside.

I achieved those amazing and unedited colors in the background by patinating with liver of sulfur. The vivid blues and purples aren’t always easy to get! I was super pleased with the results, which is great considering I accidentally cleaned the piece too well before photographing, and this is the result of my second time patinating it.

This complex, illusionistic technique to overlap and underlap anything vaguely vine-like is definitely my happy place. Designing such tangles feels as though I’m creating a micro-garden, like the vine work borders in a Medieval illuminated manuscript curled in on itself or a tiny world of William Morris’ acanthus wallpapers.

My demos on the process are a bonus lesson for the current cohort of my Eastern Repousse Extended Course online. I may offer it in the future as a stand-alone course for my Eastern repoussé alumni. If you’ve studied Eastern repoussé with me in the past and would like to be kept in the loop if I offer this project separately, click the button below, and you’ll automatically be added to the list.