An Amazing Weekend with Linda Kindler-Priest

In the doldrums of this long and cold winter, I received a mailing from one of my favorite small metal schools--Metalwerx. It was annoucing their upcoming summer series called "Summer with the Masters" and I started perusing and dreaming of summer. I was thrilled to see that a favorite jeweler of mine--Linda Kindler-Priest--was teaching a class on the ancient art of repoussage. Normally I wouldn't consider taking time off in the summer, but this was an amazing opportunity and I jumped at it. It seemed so far away!

The summer weekend came quickly. And I packed up my car and headed south. Wow!!! I loved every minute. Linda taught us the technique--the basics--and now it's up to me to take that knowledge and practice. Hammering metal for 3 days was incredible and exhausting. Here's what I learned:

Structure--we hammered pyramids into the copper as an exercise.

Motion--swirls and curly-cues.

And lastly, our realistic project--I chose a dogwood flower. It was suggested to make our project on the simpler side--not many petals, and/or profile view.

Still needs some refinement, but coming along--tap, tap, tap.