Hakuna Matata

Hey guys!

As promised, I have some progress photos of my copper tooling project. I decided to sculpt a lion out of the copper sheet. You might be wondering what exactly is copper tooling? Well to answer any of your questions copper tooling involves various techniques and tools to form and work thin sheets of copper. With this the manipulated copper foil  then bends and takes its shape as you begin to stretch the copper sheet. this particular art form has been used throughout history and across many cultures to make utilitarian and ornamental objects. The tooled metal foil has been traditionally been used to make jewellery, architectural panels and two and three-dimensional artwork for display.

 I have been working on this project for about a week and I am just putting the final touches on the project. As you can see in my process work you can manipulate the copper to push it out to your liking, giving your design a 3-D appearance. I started from the middle of my sheet, allowing me to push out the nose the most, I then moved onto the mane and worked my way out from there. As you manipulate the copper it begins to stretch giving you "dimples" around your image. You can take your tool and push the dimples out of the sheet though so don't fret! (you can see some "dimples" in the images)  Surprisingly enough you don't have to push hard with the tools! For my piece I used wooden tools, which I found worked nicely. You have to work on a soft surface to push the copper out, from the backside. (I worked on a towel) And to get definition in your piece you have to work on a hard surface, manipulating the front side to your advantage!

 I found that out of some of the mediums I have worked in copper tooling seems to be pretty forgiving in the fact that you can just push it back in if its too far or you can go back and push harder to push it out and get the definition you desire. I will post the finished project as soon as I have finished! Good luck to anyone who tries it!