Hand Engraving vs. Chasing and Repousse

I absolutely love chasing and repousse. I love the depth and dimension of the pieces and the organic feel to them. But, I continue to want to work on smaller pieces, and I’ve reached a point at which there are limitations of these techniques. A couple of years ago I ran across the incredible work of Andrew Ashcroft, and I realized that my vision was possible, but just needed to utilize different techniques. He refers to what he does as “micro-chasing,” and it’s often referred to in engraving as sculpting.

The difference between engraving and chasing and repousse is that in engraving there is removal of material. In chasing and repousse, material is pushed and molded, but no material is removed.

So, I’ve spent the past year and a half studying engraving, learning everything that I can and practicing every chance I get. I’m not exaggerating when I say that engraving is the most difficult technique I’ve every tried to learn. To add the sculpting on top of it adds another layer of difficulty.

Along the way, I’ve tried various ideas and combining various techniques to achieve my vision. While I’m not there yet, I am much closer.

I tried this hoop earring two different ways. I still have a third in mind that I haven’t worked on yet. In this first attempt, I used chasing and repousse for the leaves, and then applied those to the piece. I used engraving for the border and the background. I was happy with how these turned out.

For my second version of these earrings, I used only engraving, incorporating deep background removal as well as sculpting to give a more organic look. Between the two, I think these are my favorite, although they are much more time consuming than the first. I have an idea to use an overlay to reduce some of the background removal, and I want to work to remove more metal so it will be more sculpted.

I’m looking forward to continuing to explore how I can use these two wonderful techniques together. And each step is one step closer to that vision I have, which I hope to one day bring to life.