Silversmithing Ireland

Brian Clarke
2011 ....... Silversmithing Workshops ........ 2011
"Anticlastic Raising"

This is a technique which was explored, named, and exploited by Michael Good, a goldsmith from Maine in the USA.
It is a technique with which one can create, with relative ease, forms based on the Hyperbolic Parabola. Using this technique, one can make very interesting forms, which on a small scale can be used as pieces of jewellery or as elements in a piece of jewellery. Whereas, on a large scale the forms can be part of vessels or sculptures.

In the anticlastic process, the centre of a flat sheet is compressed and its edges stretched so that the surface develops two curves at right angles to each other moving in opposite directions. Historically, there were functional uses for some products made by rudimentary anticlastic techniques, such as spouts, handles, lipped edges, etc. but they did not predominate, nor was the concept emphasised. Indeed, it is only recently that metalsmiths have seriously investigated anticlastic raising as a way of manipulating sheet metal to derive new forms.

ANTICLASTIC RAISING
This workshop will take students through some of the various forms which are possible with Anticlastic Raising and give them a full understanding of the technique.
MATERIALS REQUIRED Anticlastic Raising....300 mm X 150 mm X .5mm & 100 mm X 100 mm X .8 mm copper, brass or bronze sheet.
The possibilities are endless and some examples are to be seen in the photos below.. some by Brian Clarke and some by Michael Good