creeeeaaaak....

That's the sound of my rusty blogging fingers. Hopefully the hibernation is over. It's the thought of all the catch up that is so daunting but the last couple of weeks from my trip were some of the most interesting so I want to share them with you. Starting with the departure from medieval Tallinn for the vineyards of Tuscany....

For those of you who don't know about it, the SNAGnet email list is a great way to find out about things of interest for jewellers in the United States. Occasionally things get sent out that are relevant for those of us outside the US - such as the calls for images for the Lark Books "500 ..." series of books - but mostly I just glance at the emails briefly before deleting them. That was until I found one that read..."Italian Chasing & Repousse` workshop in Tuscany, June 2007".

Why wouldn't you?


the view from the back of the farm house.


entree from lunch on day one


home made pizzas from lunch on the last day


the padrone's drop

6 days of instruction in Repousse and chasing, accomodation in a farmhouse in the countryside which is a fifteen minute walk through the olive groves to the studio each day, full breakfast and 3 courses at lunch and dinner home cooked using ingredients fresh from the farm. As I said, why wouldn't you?

The instruction was given by Davide Bigazzi.



Davide grew up in Florence and he and his wife, Elisa, divide their time between their studio and gallery in California and their house and workshop in Pian Di Sco'.

Now, repousse is one of those techniques that I somehow managed to dodge at university. I'm sure instruction was given but I somehow managed to get through without trying it. So it was all new to me.



the workshop.




Preparing the pitch bowl




Our tools


The first exercise was getting used to holding the tools so we used a liner to create this pattern.




After mastering that we got to work on something more complicated...



This is my effort after repousse and prior to chasing...



And finished



not bad for a first timer.

And here we all are, showing off our achievements.



(L-R) Bill and his serpent dish, Norma (another beginner like me) and her exercise 2 and neckpiece and earrings made from exercise 1, Davide and Elisa, Me and Roy and his two belt buckles.

.