Sarah Skelton

In her opening remarks Jill warned us that doing fold forming, corrugation and press forming all in one day was going to be busy and it was definitely going to be noisy! She then gave us a quick introduction on each process, showing us some of her lovely examples.

Fold Forming: We looked at some of the folds that were possible, and Jill pointed us to her copy of Charles Lewton-Brain's ‘Fold Forming’ for further examples.

She then showed us how to do a line fold: Fold your metal edge to edge then press down to make a fold, depending on the thickness of the metal you can make a sharp fold with your fingers (shim) or with a hammer (0.4mm) and then anneal it. Next open the fold with a suitable tool, Jill uses a watch opener, then confirm the fold with a hammer. Further folds can be made, remembering to anneal after each one. Fold forming can be done on thinner metal which can then be press formed for different effects.

Corrugation: Corrugators come in various shapes and sizes, Jill had 4 on offer for us to try. A single corrugation shrinks the metal by 30% and there may be some distortion as well. It's best to use shim or up to 0.3 mm metal. Jill recommended ‘Metal Corrugation’ by Patricia McAleer for further reading as well as a 2017 journal article by Christine Williams available on the Guild website.

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