A Short Interlude - The Leaf Box

While I'm waiting for the muse to strike, I thought I'd put together another post today covering a project which I worked on a couple of months back. This post is also in part inspired by a request I had the other day to show someone repousse -  a metal working technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in relief.

I was initially inspired by the onset of autumn and as a result of a little idle doodling during a rather boring meeting.

This resulted in the following concept sketch;

From this I developed a concept for a 'Leaf Box' made from copper and silver.

I formed the side of the box from copper, shaped to the outline of the leaf sketch. I decided to make each curve individually and then soldered them together to form the side. I then soldered this to a flat sheet of copper to form the main part of the box.

 I then worked on the top of the box whic incorporates the leaf pattern from the initial sketch. I used repousse to form the curve of the main boy of the leaf and the thin veins which extend to the edge.

 The following picture gives a better view of the low relief which can be achieved.

With the parts completed, I began the assembly stage. I decided to cut the lid from the body before soldering on the top as I wanted to make sure I matched the outline of the side of the box was well as possible. The following picture shows me midway through the cutting process to separate the lid.

 The finished box was completed with the addition of a bezel strip around the inside of the side of the lid.