The word repoussé is French, meaning to push out. I use thin gauge sheet silver or gold, hitting alternately from the front and back to create the high relief you see. Traditionally, the process of hitting the metal from the front is called chasing and may be done alone or as part of the repoussé process. THERE ARE NO MOLDS OF ANY KIND. Really, nothing but my tools, my hammer, and my imagination.
I first hammer my design on the front of the sheet with a line tool, which looks like a dull chisel. Next I hammer the metal from the back with oval ended tools. By this time I’ve work hardened the metal, so it’s time to anneal it (the process of heating then quenching the metal to make it soft again.). I continue hammering on the back and front alternately, and annealing until I have achieved the height I want. This can be anywhere from five to ten rounds.
Once it is “puffy” enough (a technical term), I begin hammering more from the front to create the ledges, and swirls that are characteristic of my style of repoussé. To achieve the look of relief upon relief I return to hammering from the back to further "puff" out the shapes. It is a long but rewarding process that cannot be duplicated by any other smithing technique.
Eastern repoussé is the technique of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. It has been mostly lost in the west and much of northern Asia, though it is still practiced in the Republic of Georgia, Dagistan, and other former Soviet countries. “Western” repoussé (which is also done in eastern Asia) differs in that it is not usually done in such high relief. Often, the metal is sunk to achieve height and then chased from the front to create detail. The tools are shaped differently and, rather than being struck at a 90º angle to the metal, they may be struck at almost a 45º angle, as if one were chiseling.
Unfortunately, there are many incorrect explanations of these technique in art history books and web sites. Many of them describe hitting the sheet metal over a stone or wood form until the metal conforms to the desired shape, a feat that defies the laws of physics. The ancients did use molds for repeating elements, such as the small amulets placed within mummy wrappings in Egypt, or the acorn or other seed shaped repeating elements in the Hellenistic and Classical Greek gold necklaces, but in such cases, the metal was pressed into these molds rather than being hit over them.
(Book spines are repoussé. Bookcase doors are Russian filigree.)
Complex, one-of-a-kind, or larger works, such as Tutankhamun’s mummy mask, the inlaid necklaces also of the late 18th dynasty, and many of the unique Greek and Scythian pieces of gold work were not made with molds, but by the Eastern repoussé technique, described at the top of this page. It is fairly easy to tell the difference between molded and not molded work. The repoussé pieces have distinct tool marks on the fronts which create much more definition in the relief. There is also a third category of pieces that were molded for efficiency and speed, and then chased from the front to create beautiful and unique details.
