Thomas Mann Techno Romantic Artist - Jigsaw to Jewelry

Thomas Mann
Jigsaw to Jewelry
Two Day Workshop - $300 for Patch Readers - includes lunch
Kit Fee: $55.00

I had the unique experience of being able to be an “art major” during the junior and senior years of high school. I can remember a semester of print making and how intriguing I found the process. I got into it big time and pretty soon I was making silk-screen posters. I had the opportunity to try my hand at every printing technique. Wood blocks, dry point and chemical etching , monoprints and lithography. Just writing this reminds as well of the junior high school print shop class where we set type and did letterpress printing.

While visiting my friend and sculptor colleague, John Martini, and his photographer and photo gravure printing expert partner, Carol Munder, at their home in Paris, I had the opportunity to work in their, print making studio with a very nice etching press.

I started playing around doing monoprints on acrylic sheet. I’d brought along some aluminum sheet and tried that too. Then it occurred to me to cut the aluminum apart an ink the elements separately, put them back together on the press bed and pull the print.

Wow…what a cool effect and twist on the traditional process. I’m sure someone somewhere has done it before but it’s still an interesting approach to a traditional technique.

The Jigsaw to Jewelry workshop explores the technique of making a monoprint from an inked jigsaw puzzle style grouping of plates, one of which is destined to become a wearable jewelry object.

It employs the use of the jewelers saw to make a sawn out interlocking grouping of plates from the primary design which are then separately chased or etched, then inked in monoprint and standard etching techniques, reassembled on the bed of an etching press from which a print is pulled.

In this two day immersion participants will have the opportunity to learn and apply the techniques of sawing, chasing, etching and print making. And then the conversion of the primary jigsaw element into a wearable jewelry object utilizing, cold connections, soldering and forming techniques.

Note: A brief Learn to Saw class will be given for anyone unfamiliar with the jewelers saw. But it is recommended that you learn the use of this marvelous tool before arriving for the class. You can purchase Tom’s new book and DVD “The Metalsmith’s Workbench: De-Mystifying the Jewelers Saw at thomasmann.com in the studioFLUX section of the site.

Tom will have most of these things for students to use, but they may have to share so some students may want to bring their own.

For full details and registration log onto the links below: