PROJECT
BEGINNER | METAL
High Relief, Low Risk:
LEARN
CHASING &
REPOUSSÉ
Transform a common tin container into
a custom decorative trinket box.
FCT-MWON0216_ART05
by Laurie Jane Kern
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materials
■■
Used tin with lid
tools & supplies
Pitch bowl with pitch
Heat gun
■■ Sandbag or rubber ring
■■ Bowl of cool water
■■ Steel bench block
■■ Rawhide mallet
■■ Wooden dowel (optional)
■■ Particulate respirator
■■ Flex shaft or rotary tool with 80-grit
radial-bristle disks
■■ Painter’s tape (optional)
■■ Paper template and rubber cement,
or carbon paper, tracing paper, and
a pencil
■■ Lip balm, olive oil, mineral oil, or
flourless non-stick cooking spray
■■ Cookie sheet or disposable aluminum
cooking sheet (optional)*
■■ Spoon*
■■ Butter knife, spatula, or silicone pot
scraper or stir stick*
■■ Pliers
■■ Refrigerator or bucket of cool
water (optional)
■■ Chasing tools: variety of shapes and
sizes including soft-edge liners,
rounded embossing tools
■■ Chasing hammer, lightweight
■■ Mineral spirits, nail-polish remover,
or acetone
■■ Molding material (Silly Putty, Play-doh,
plasticine clay, or Bubber)
■■ 2-part epoxy resin (optional)
■■ Solvent dyes, alcohol inks, permanent markers, or paint or patina for
steel (optional)
■■ Spray sealant
■■
■■
*Dedicated for nonfood use
Have you ever been given tins full of
cookies during the holidays or bought those
“curious mints” which seem to be everywhere these days?
What do you do with the tins once they’re empty? It
seems a waste to throw them away, but hoarding stacks
of old tins is a waste of space. Adding chasing & repoussé
to a tin lid allows you to reuse those tins and make them
into small works of art you will be proud to show off.
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Prepare your pitch bowl. A day before
you start your project, place pitch into a
cast-iron pitch bowl, and use a heat gun
to heat it until it’s molten and level. Let it
cool overnight.
NOTE: If you want to get your feet wet
and try this technique before investing
in pitch and a pitch bowl, see “Pitch &
Pitch-bowl Alternatives,” next page.
Remove the lid.­ Choose a tin [1]. (Most
“tin” is actually cold-rolled steel with a
painted finish.) Open the lid, and use
chainnose pliers to gently undo the hinges
[2]. Remove the lid, and set the base aside.
Template
Some lids have a frame as part of the
design; if you want to keep it, cover the
frame with painter’s tape before sanding.
NOTE: Don’t heat the lid to burn the paint
off. The heat will form an oxide layer on
the tin, which is hard to remove. Also, you
do not have to anneal the lid. The metal
is so thin it is not required.
Prepare the lid. If the lid has embossed
imagery, place it face-down on a steel
bench block, and use a rawhide mallet
to gently tap a wooden dowel against
the tin to flatten the embossed areas [3].
Attach your design. Choose your design,
and make sure it fits on the lid of the tin
[5]. I made this box as a way for the tooth
fairy to make nighttime exchanges; you
can use my tooth Template (left), or come
up with one of your own.
NOTE: Since you’ll be pushing from the
inside out when you repoussé the tin, any
remaining embossing will be smoothed
into the design.
Use rubber cement to adhere the
template to the tin [6]. You can also use
carbon paper and tracing paper, or draw
your design on the tin free-hand.
Use 80-grit radial-bristle disks in a flex
shaft or rotary tool to remove the paint
from the top of the lid [4]. You can use
sandpaper or chemicals to remove the
paint, but it will take longer and require
additional safety precautions.
Add a release agent. Coat the inside
of the tin with a release, such as lip balm,
olive oil, mineral oil, or a flourless nonstick
cooking spray [7]. Use a generous amount
to ensure the lid will release easily from the
pitch; don’t forget to cover the side walls
and the edge of the tin to assist in its removal later.
SAFETY NOTE: Always wear a particulate respirator when grinding or sanding
to prevent inhaling any dust.
©2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be
reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher.
Fill the lid with pitch. Use a heat gun to
gently warm the pitch in the pitch bowl.
facetjewelry.com
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NOTE: If your tin is large and does not fit
in your pitch pot, fill the lid with pitch and
place it on an old cookie sheet or disposable aluminum cooking pan.
When the pitch is warm, use a spoon
to scoop up enough to fill the lid. Heat the
pitch until it’s level. Repeat to fill the lid to
the rolled edge. Allow the lid to cool [8].
Place the lid on the pitch bowl. Warm
the pitch in the bowl, and then use a
butter knife, spatula, or a silicone pot
scraper or stir stick to smooth and level
the surface of the pitch.
TIP: Silicone kitchen tools are
great for pushing around warm
pitch in a pitch bowl. After it’s
cooled, the pitch peels right off
of the silicone.
Use pitch-dedicated pliers to turn the
lid over and place it on top of the pitch
pot. Don’t press the lid down into the
pitch, just let it sit on top [9]. This makes
it easier to remove later. Allow the pitch
to cool completely.
Test the pitch by pressing a butter knife
or spoon into it; the utensil should not sink
into it. If you allow the pitch to cool overnight, it will be cool enough to work with.
To quickly cool it, place the pitch bowl in
pitch & pitch-bowl
alternatives
If you haven’t done chasing and repoussé before, it’s highly unlikely that you have
a pitch bowl (and pitch) ready and waiting. Here are some convenient alternatives
to get you started. (A pitch bowl and real pitch do work better, so if you find you
like the technique, you’ll want to invest in the proper setup).
Pitch alternative: You can use any rigid, non-drying clay as a temporary pitch
alternative. You can place a lump of it on a board, fill the inside of the tin’s lid to
do the lining and final chasing, and place the lid on the extra clay. For repoussé,
you can push the clay into a large lump and set the lid into the mound.
Pitch-bowl alternatives: You can use a small cast-iron frying pan instead of a pitch
bowl. Or, you can build a frame box, a low-walled wooden box into which pitch is
poured. Both of these choices can be harder to work with than a bowl, since a pitch
bowl has a round bottom and is supported by a rubber ring or sandbag, allowing it
to be rotated in any direction. Make sure to use a sandbag under the pan or box to
allow you to tilt the work.
a refrigerator, a bucket of cool water, or
outside (if it’s cold).
Line the design. Select soft-edge liners
[10]. The liners on the left of the photo
have sharp corners, whereas the liners on
the right have soft, rounded edges, and
are less likely to punch through the tin.
Use a lightweight chasing hammer
(I use a 22 mm hammer, left in photo, and
a 30 mm hammer, right) [11] and a light
touch to gently line the design [12]. Try not
to pierce the lid with the lining tool.
Once you’ve finished lining the design,
slowly peel away the paper to verify that
the entire design is marked and the lining
is continuous [13]. If it’s not, complete
the lining in those places.
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be removed during the final cleanup.
Remove the lid from the pitch. Warm
the pitch to soften it. The pitch should
not be runny, as that will cause it to stick
too much to the lid and it will require more
effort to remove. Apply the heat slowly,
push the pitch away from the lid to expose
the sides, and then gently lift the lid using
one of the following techniques:
• Use pliers to grab the rolled edge of
the tin (be careful not to bend the lid).
• Use a butter knife (no sharp edges)
to get under the edge of the lid and
gently lift up without bending or
denting the lid.
Use a paper towel with mineral spirits,
nail-polish remover, or acetone to remove
extra pitch left behind inside the lid [14].
Only worry about pitch that’s on the
design area; you’ll return the lid to the
pitch later, and any pitch left behind will
Create a design with large,
raised areas like the project
box (shown open, above
top), or use smaller tools to
form more intricate, linear
designs, like these larger
boxes (above and right).
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Place the lid back in the pitch. Coat
the outside of the lid with your choice
of release. Warm the pitch pot and level
the surface. Place the lid inside-up on the
pitch. Press the lid into the pitch. Use your
fingers to push the pitch up and over the
corners of the lid to secure it in place [15].
Allow the pitch to cool before working on
it; the tin can dent if the pitch is too warm.
Repoussé the design. Use a large, rounded tool to gently punch and build up the
volume inside the lines [16]. Work slowly,
and build an even volume [17]. Consider
which parts will be the foreground, background, etc. Smooth the transitions from
the various depths as much as possible.
This will help reduce lumps and bumps
on the outside of the tin. Use a molding
material to check your progress (see
“Check Your Progress,” next page).
Chase the design to refine the forms.
When you have finished the repoussé
[18], warm your pitch and remove the lid
from the pitch pot. Remove any extra pitch
from the outside of the lid. Coat the inside
of the tin with a release, and fill it with
pitch. Place the tin back on the pitch pot
[19], and do your final lining, undercutting,
planishing, and texturing [20]. )
Process photos by Laurie Jane Kern.
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Remove the lid from the pitch, and use
a solvent to remove all the extra pitch.
Check for tears. Hold your lid up to
the light. If you see any light around the
design, you pierced through [21]. I’ve
found that this mostly happens during
the final lining and undercutting. If you
are good at soldering mild steel, you can
solder the opening closed. If not, use your
fingers or tools to push the crack closed,
and put some 2-part epoxy resin on it from
the inside after you finish the project.
Finish the tin. If desired, you can apply a
patina or paint the tin. You can use solvent
dyes, alcohol inks, permanent markers, or
any other type of paint that will adhere to
Additional reading:
• Ganoksin, www.ganoksin.com/
borisat/directory/library/subject/79
• Chasing & Repoussé: Methods Ancient
and Modern, by Nancy Megan Corwin,
www.brynmorgen.com
check
your
progress
When doing repoussé, there’s an
easier way to check your progress
than removing your piece from the
pitch. Use Silly Putty, Play-doh, or
a non-drying clay like plasticine
or Bubber (which has become my
new favorite as it seems to hold its
shape best). Soften and massage
your choice of material, press it into
the metal, and carefully lift it out.
This impression is fairly close to
what your metal will look like from
the front, but remember that the
repoussé is reversed. So, if an area
on the left of the impression needs
work, you’ll need to work on the
right side of the metal.
mild steel. You can even find patinas for
steel online. Seal the lid with a spray sealant to prevent it from rusting.
Slip the lid back onto the tab hinges on
the base. Use pliers to bend the tabs back
into position [22]. Thanks to Gene Olson of Mettleworks, www.
mettleworks.com, for answering my questions
and sharing images of his tin projects.
ASK THE ARTIST: LAURIE JANE KERN
What was the first
piece of jewelry you
ever made?
“It’s not jewelry, but I made
my first piece of chasing and
repoussé a few months after
taking a class with Nancy
Megan Corwin in 2009. It was
a small raised bowl that could
fit in the palm of your hand, with a double spiral visible
from the inside and the outside. When I took my second class with Megan, I showed
her my bowl and she expressed a desire to add it to her collection of chasing and
repoussé works. I was initially conflicted, but knew that having a piece of my work
owned by Megan was an honor. She made me a wonderful repoussé tool in trade
for my bowl.”
Contact: www.theadventuroussilversmith.com
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