Gourds and Snails: Uchidashi at Anneville

​The second week of Ford Hallam's visit to Anneville got off to a great start. We had a Meet & Greet at Stone Brewery on the Sunday evening, and learned we had an eager and impressive crew - more jewelry/metals teachers, classically trained jewelers, folks with tons of experience in chasing & repoussé, even a bladesmith and Forged in Fire champion! From then until the last hour on Friday, the participants were a joy to be around - ambitious, focused, hard-working, talented, and funny too.  We've already got plans for a few of them to return as visiting artists themselves. Here are photos and a recap of what they learned and created.

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As Ford says early on in this class, uchidashi is not chasing. Not at all, in fact it can be a hindrance to have a lot of chasing experience. For one thing, the tools are quite different. Uchidashi punches are big, and have a rough finish, while chasing tools are generally more delicate and have a shiny polished surface. The participants' first job was to take their 17 tool blanks (purchased separately from Michael Coffey) and file a specific shape on each. The tool set was designed by Ford specifically for the gourd and snail, but the shapes are adaptable and usable for many different designs. Fortunately, the filing work was a lot quicker and simpler than the exacting chisel making of the week before, so most folks had their tools shaped by the end of the first day. On the second day, after a few lessons in pitch management the gourds started taking form.

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It was clear that participants found the process of uchidashi absorbing and addictive. There is something satisfying and magical about watching the form take shape beneath the tools. The copper starts out flat, then has a very vague oval bumped up from the back. Once in the pitch, the bump gets hammered down using the various punches, slowly gaining more detail, almost like a low resolution image coming more and more into focus.

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The surface on an uchidashi piece is left fairly rough from the action of the tools, so the next step was to refine the surface using the traditional Japanese techniques - scraping and stoning. No files or sandpaper here! These are meditative processes, and the noise level in the studio quieted down as the focus went from hammering to careful scraping and stoning.

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The next two days were spent in careful finishing of the gourd and slow progress of snails.
On the last day was the big finish - the hido patina on the gourds. Hido is a copper red patina created by heating copper to almost melting, then quenching it really fast in water with borax. Simple concept, but tricky to master. Luckily we had a master on hand to show us the way.

During the traditional raffle and wrap-up session, we learned from the participants how much it meant to them to be able to study with Ford. More than one confessed they had studied Ford's patreon how-to videos late at night, sometimes falling asleep to the gentle tippy-tap of his hammer and chisel. Eyes were misty as they spoke about how seeing his work changed their lives. Ame and I also felt pretty misty-eyed, realizing our part in bringing together this diverse group of artists to learn from Ford but also from each other. Moments like these are why we created Anneville Jewelry Lab.

Videographer Bella Day in action.

For more about uchidashi, you can read my blog post from when I took Ford's uchidashi class in Torquay, England. I also heartily recommend visiting Ford's Patreon page. There you'll find loads of great information and free videos. You might also consider becoming a Patron for unlimited access to his videos, first notice of new classes and more exclusive benefits. You'll find it at patreon.com/FordHallam

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Until next time! If you think you'd like to be part of next time, be sure to sign up on our mailing list so we can let you know when Ford is headed our way again. Interested in high res photos? Hang tight, they're coming soon!

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