Repousse Art

October 2014

Art Element focus: Texture

Students learned a bit about the Repousse technique, also known as metal tooling.  We learned that Repousse comes from the French word pouser which means to push.  The students were very excited about this lesson because no one had ever worked with the foil before.  I think they were also attracted to the shiny nature of the metal.  These projects are indeed eye catching.  The students did an amazing job with this one!

Here is the process:

Step 1:  Students planned a line drawing on a 6" square piece of paper.  I asked them to make 5 sections with a different design in each.

Step 2:  When the drawing was finished students taped it to a 6" square piece of metal.  Then the transferred the drawing to the metal  by pressing gently.  IMPORTANT:  give students a piece of cardboard  to put under the metal when they are pressing into it.

Step 3:  When the drawing is transferred they should take the paper off and press as hard as they can into the metal a second time.  A blunt pencil works well.

Step 4:  Next, they worked the metal on the reverse side by pressing gently with the pencil right NEXT to the popped out line.  This really helped the work look finished.

Step 5:  When finished working the metal, students rubbed done black paint into the cracks to get some contrast.  I gave them the option to use sharpie for this step but most chose  the paint which I think worked better.

Step 6:  Glue the metal square to an 11" inch square.  A glue gun works great for this step.  

Step 7:  Students extended their lines and patterns on to the large square.  I had some silver sharpies available to trace the lines.  They colored the rest with colored pencil.

Whew!  This project took about 6 days to complete.  Good one for increasing attention span and proving the point that hard work creates beauty!!!