Woman from Silence. Repousse on copper

Relief wall  sculpture on Copper. Dimensions 23" x 34"

The repousse relief sculpture is made by working the  metal direct without molds and begins with the subject matter. Stefan makes his own designs based on his own imagination and draw inspiration from history, mythologies, folktales, and real life.The preliminary drawings lay out the subject to make the idea suitable for the metal relief sculpture. Repousse is made with ancient style tools, embossing the metal on a soft surface which allows it to give when pressure is applied, in order to render the image in the metal. The design is first chased (outline) onto the metal from the front. Then it is embossed from the back (repousse) using special hand tools. These steps are alternated until the design is fully completed. The variety of color effects are created by a combination of several methods and techniques. Traditional patinas, metal stains, paints, and gold or silver leaf create more dramatic effects.

 For some 5000 years many different civilizations around the world have used the art of repousse for artistic endeavors. Relief sculpture has been created using gold, silver, copper, brass, and other metals. From the ancient Mediterranean civilizations, to the Chinese, Scandinavians, Africa and India. Also on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean the Mayans and Aztecs decorated gold objects and jewelry with the art of repousse in the pre-Columbian era. One of the oldest metal objects that has been decorated with the art of repousse is a gold helmet (obviously ceremonial) found in Mesopotamia, dated 2500 B.C.