Metal Embossing

Metal Embossing: Templates and Beginner Techniques for tooling metal foil pewter is an essential resource. Russian and Greek iconographers employ countless elaborate design styles in metal. Our How to Book is a collection of icon templates for those devoted to traditional fine craftsmanship. Beautifully embellished halos have been a Byzantine iconographical legacy and tradition for centuries. Craft and hobby lovers will enjoy this introduction to the art techniques employed in metal embossing. Create your own silver halos.

The first section of the book discusses tools, supplies, and techniques. Tools and metal foil sheets are all you need to create beautiful designs. Each tool has its own character and purpose to help you press from the back to the front and flatten raised areas that get distorted. As you learn to refine the edges of your patterns, you will add a few more tools to accommodate increased skill. This book gives you a place to begin and inspires you to go further with practice. After describing the tools and supplies, I give you basic techniques, step-by-step, to teach yourself how to create borders and halos to embellish your icons. The process is simple and only requires investing hours of focused practice. After about ten hours of practice, you will begin to sense and feel the amount of pressure required to make fluid designs and textures. Experimenting will bring the best results and in no time you will be skilled enough to create beautiful work for embellishing your icons.

Metal Embossing is known in Spanish as repujado. In French, they say repousse, they both mean to push. Metal embossing to make a riza or oklad, is an art form that has been around for centuries. Riza or oklad is a term used to describe the beautiful metal covers originally applied to icons so they could be protected and transported. Embossing metal imparts luster, and radiance, to an otherwise flat appearance, adding intriguing dimension, texture, and value. The artful practice of repousse and egg tempera has quietly endured for centuries. Lavish embellishments of silver, gold, and jewels to accent the beauty of icons was a common practice in Russia around the 18th century. This book is geared towards those of you in the iconography community interested in creating your own silver halos. The first section of the book discusses tools, supplies and techniques. Tools and metal foil sheets are all you need to create beautiful designs. Each tool has its own character and purpose to help you press from the back to the front and flatten raised areas that get distorted. As you learn to refine the edges of your patterns, you will add a few more tools to accommodate increased skill. This Metal Embossing How To book gives you a place to begin and inspires you to go further with practice. After describing the tools and supplies, I give you basic techniques, step-by-step, to teach yourself how to create borders and halos to embellish your icons. The process is simple, and only requires investing hours of focused practice. After about ten hours of practice, you will begin to sense and feel the amount of pressure required to make fluid designs and textures. Experimenting will bring the best results and in no time you will be skilled enough to create beautiful work for embellishing your icons