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Hydraulic Press: Basics and Beyond
The hydraulic press is a great tool for making both one-of-a-kind pieces and multiples. Learn how to use the hydraulic press to explore the design, texture, and form possibilities it offers. The class will begin with hydraulic press safety and care before moving on to using the press. Make your own embossing tools and silhouette dies. Learn how to use a range of Bonny Doon tools, including anticlastic, synclastic, and free-form bracelet tools, ring tools, and deep draw tools for small vessels and boxes. Mastering these tools and techniques will allow students to produce bracelets, earrings, rings, beads, and more. This class will demystify the different urethanes and dies while providing students with best practices for using the press and with the confidence to improvise!
Cynthia will show samples of variations and possibilities for each technique. This course is process-oriented, rather than project-based. Demonstrations will alternate with time for hands-on work. This workshop is appropriate for students with basic metalsmithing skills as well as professionals.
Meet the instructor
Whether using hammers and stakes, or hydraulic press tools, Cynthia's sculptural jewelry and hollowware shows her focus on exploring the fluidity with which metal can be moved, formed, and joined.
Cynthia Eid co-authored the book Creative Metal Forming, with Betty Helen Longhi, published in 2013 by Tim McCreight's Brynmorgen Press. In his foreword for the book, Michael Good says the authors "have succeeded in assembling the first comprehensive textbook on synclastic and anticlastic forming." (More about the book available at www.creativemetalforming.com.)
Cynthia and Betty developed a set of anticlastic stakes, and Eid also works with Knew Concepts and Bonny Doon to help make tools for jewelers and metalsmiths. Lee Marshall has dubbed Cynthia Eid "Godmother of the Knew Concept Saws" since it was her idea for him to produce these saws for jewelers.
Excited about working in sterling silver without the problem of firescale, Cynthia has been working with Argentium Silver since 1999. After meeting Peter Johns (the inventor of Argentium Silver) in 2003, Eid has participated in AS's development. Argentium International, Ltd recognizes her as a Pioneer.
Cynthia Eid's metalwork has won awards for creativity and design, been featured in many publications, and been exhibited internationally. With a BS in Art Education and MFA in Jewelry, Design, and Silversmithing, she has previously worked as a bench jeweler for fine goldsmiths, a model-maker in a gold jewelry factory, and on private commissions. Her work is in museums in the US and UK. Currently an independent metalsmith and educator, she teaches weekly classes at Metalwerx in Massachusetts, and workshops and short courses in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
Materials & Tools
There is a $95 materials fee for this class that is payable to the instructor the day of the first class. The materials kit includes:
- Copper Sheet:
- Two 6” x 12” (or 12" x 12") - 24 gauge
- 6” x 12" - 28 gauge
- 6” x 12" - 20 gauge
- Yellow brass wire in various gauges for making embossing tools
- Materials for making your own silhouette die(s)
- One-18 gauge Brass 3” x 3” for face plate for silhouette die (or to make embossing die). Brass is easier to saw accurately than plastic, and makes it easier to make a reversible die that will last longer than a plastic die.
- #1 saw blades for 18 ga. for Brass face plates
- One Acrylic Sheet 3” x 3” x ¼” for silhouette die(s).
- Skip-tooth saw blades (#2, 3, or 4) for acrylic (cuts faster and smoother than spiral)
- Shipping of an additional Hydraulic Press for use in Workshop-Each student shares in this cost $20
Also available for Purchase at Workshop
- Burs for carving plastic for embossing dies (coarse burs that cut plastic quickly & easily)
- Thick Polycarbonate sheet—to make embossing die(s) by carving. Polycarbonate is less prone to fracture than acrylic.
- Delrin dome for making a domed embossing tool
- Limited amounts of extra metal and supplies
If you would like to have your own tools, rather than share school tools, here are suggestions for what you might wish to bring:
- Closed-toe shoes - required in the Metalwerx studio
- Ruler, paper, pencil, extra-fine tipped Sharpie
- Abrasive paper and sanding sticks
- Files, especially a #2 cut half-round
- (Hand held) metal shears, such as Joyce Chen
- Jeweler’s saw, Saw blade lubricant/wax
- Safety glasses
- Apron
- Rubber bands or barrettes to keep long hair away from flames and machinery
- Coarse steel flex shaft burs for carving plexi and delrin (making dies)
- Can be handy for designing: tracing paper, graph paper, carbon paper
- Roller printing materials
- Any of your favorite tools that you know that you typically use a lot
Silver: Students may bring Argentium Sterling or traditional sterling silver to work in if they wish to work in silver. Fine silver can be good for small jewelry or if it is to be enameled.