Anticlastic raising is a process by which metal is deformed by the use of polished hammers and plastic mallets of various sizes and shapes. Anticlastic refers to the direction in which the metal is deformed. On a flat sheet of metal draw two axis at 90 degrees to each other. If you were to then bend one of them up and the other down you would have an anticlastic shape. If both of the axis were bent in the same direction you would have a synclastic shape. A synclastic shape is shaped like a bowl, an anticlastic shape is a saddle shape.

All of my anticlastic forming is done using steel hammers on plastic stakes or plastic mallets on steel stakes. Metal does not want to bend this way so it must be ìgently persuadedî with the hammers. No molds or castings are used. The metal is not hammered into a form the shape of the earring but rather formed freehand over the stakes. Nothing is soldered or added onto the earring, even the earwire is formed out of the same sheet of gold or silver.

Because of the technique the metal becomes very work hardened, which makes it very strong and very ìspringyî. This enables me to use a fairly thin gauge of metal which contributes to the earrings exceptionally light weight.

Many ìcoursesî or passes are required to deform the metal into the desired shape. After each course the metal must be annealed (softened by heating), to restore its workability. If too many courses are done without annealing the metal becomes brittle. Once the desired shape is reached the metal must then be planished all over to remove any hammer marks or irregularities. The piece must then be polished and or sandblasted to complete the project.

Each pair will match (mirror images but the same size and shape), but because there are no molds used there may be slight variations from pair to pair.