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Foldforming Book
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An Overview of the Folds
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Charles Lewton-Brain invented fold-forming, a completely new way of forming sheet metal quickly into wonderful 3-D shapes and textures, most from single sheets of metal without any soldering. Fold-forming uses sheet material, folds it, works it and then unfolds it. Many schools and workshops teach and use fold-forming, and thousands of people use parts of the system in their work. Brain Press is in the last 10% of the multi-year CDROM compilation of all the fold-forms, finally due out in Summer 2008. Alan Revere's comments on Lewton-Brain are here. A description of hammers and other tools for fold-forming is here. Some step by step articles on making fold-forms are here. (Examples from the CDROM). Works by Lewton-Brain available to purchase are Here.
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Fold forming is a new system of metal forming developed
between 1980 and the present which is the concrete result of a conceptual
approach to metalsmithing that emphasizes forming using the metals
characteristics. Click on the pictures to see full size images
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It is about following what the metal likes to do. Rather than forcing
form upon the material forms are to some extent derived from the
natural tendencies of the plasticity, ductility and elasticity of
the metal.
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 Sheared and formed star folds. 
Forged wedge T-fold (Good fold) |
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 Woven fold, (Adams fold) |
The British Museum Research Lab and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, among others have certified that Fold-forming is new, and has not been done before in the history of metal working. |
 A pile of pleated folds, each made from a single sheet. |
Because one does not fight the metal or force form upon it forming is extremely efficient and very rapid (many radical changes in cross section and surface can be made in 3-5 minutes). |
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Complex high relief forms are produced from single sheets of metal
often with a single annealing. |
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These shapes resemble chased, constructed and soldered forms and can often not be arrived at in any other way in a comparable working time. The techniques may be used with most metals including aluminum, niobium and steel. As there is no soldering for high relief forms the surfaces are applicable for jewellery, holloware, enamelling, anodizing etc |
 Bowl form using T-folds and cross-folds to gather the metal. 
Bowl from two fold-formed discs soldered together. |
 Scored and bent folds, two stages. One is scored and bent using separating discs and the other has been soldered after scoring and then flattened out. |
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Categories include: |
And Woven Folds, Form and Shear, Pleated Folds, Folds derived from paper models |
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These pieces are by Charles Lewton-Brain
This is copper sculpture forged from a single sheet, 2 feet high |
 Sterling silver rueger fold  Tennessee fold Form", forged from a single sheet, 2.5 feet across. |
 "Dancing pin", moonstones, zircon, 18k gold doublee. Scored and bent. |
| "I believe in Beauty, and that ‘beauty’
is related to nature (form, surface texture, colour) for most humans.
I play with the tension between nature and structure." "Allowing the nature of the materials to do the work, deliberately building in some randomness, letting nature show in the work lends it a ‘beauty’ that I cannot easily reach by forcing form onto the material." "The poignancy of humans laying structure upon the universe, of our need to create and seek pattern intrigues me, and is part of the work." |
"The roles and relationships of human and nature, human and
perceived reality are of interest to me." "The marks of process are compositional elements. The effects
of chaos (nature) on systems is something I work with." |
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Making Fold-Forms
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Making
a T-Fold with a Table Insert |
How
to make a Rolled Fold Heistad Cup |
A basic T-fold diagram |
Fold forms while they can be used as finished products are at their best
as a starting point or component of more complex pieces. An example of
this might be slicing up a fold form, manipulating the elements and re-soldering,
or using it as an element in a constructed structure. By chasing on air
in a T-folding technique hours may be cut from a chasing procedure. Fold
forming also offers a major new series of procedures for production work.
A number of production shops now use fold forming as part of their working
vocabulary.
Fold forms themselves have developed a great deal since 1985. There are
now a number of discrete avenues of research available involving folding,
working and unfolding. Each avenue provides great numbers of individual
'marks' or process elements that are distinct enough to be worthy of naming.
These are arrived at by following specific procedures, recipes that produce
given results. By making a number of fold forms and experimenting an understanding
of process in metal forming is achieved more rapidly than in conventional
working methods.
Charles Lewton-Brain's Articles
at the Ganoksin Project
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