Lewton-Brain Foldform Competition Winners Announced

Lewton-Brain Foldform Competition Winners Announced

  • For Immediate Release Florida NY -

The winning entries for the inaugural Lewton-Brain Foldform
Competition 2012 have been announced at the final day of the 5th
annual Lewton-Brain Conference in Florida New York, about 60 miles
north of New York City. Charles Lewton-Brain announced the winners of
the competition at closing ceremonies August 6, 2012, at the Center
for Metal Arts.

First Place honors go to Rauni Higson with her entry “Undersea
Candelabra”. Ms. Higson is from Talysarn, Caernarfon, U.K.

Second Place winner is Theresa Nguyen of Birmingham, U.K., with her
entry “Spiritus”.

Third Place goes to Kaiya Rainbolt of San Francisco, USA, with
“Quadrant”.

A fourth prize of Honorable Mention was created by the judges to
recognize the entry by Grant McCaig with “Pleated Silver Drinking Set
on Ebonised Base”. Mr. McCaig is from London, U.K.

The Lewton-Brain Foldform Competition was launched to recognize the
experimental work being done using the techniques of foldforming
across art disciplines, and to create a benchmark survey of how this
innovative sheet-forming technique is evolving in the thirty short
years since it was first developed and catalogued by Mr. Lewton-Brain
in the 1980’s. The competition stirred international interest among
jewelers and metalsmiths, with 160 entries from three continents.

A view of the entries suggests that jewelers who construct with
foldforming techniques are moving into more sophisticated and less
obvious uses of the folded forms. While it is not surprising that the
process would be widely used as a forming technique in jewelry,
foldforming has begun to be explored in related disciplines of
sculpture and functional objets d’art. In the world of blacksmithing
for instance, foldforming methods are being used and explored.

“The process of foldforming has broadened the scope of
blacksmithing,” said judge Ed Mack. “The intention of the Center for
Metal Arts is to fully integrate the process into our work and
curriculum.”

Judges Tim McCreight of Brynmorgen Press, Charles Lewton-Brain of
Brain Press, and Ed Mack of Center for Metal Arts deliberated with a
strong field of deserving final round contenders, and ultimately
chose to create the fourth Honorable Mention prize. “Thirty years is
a short time in a field whose milestones are measured in centuries.
It is a thrill to see the diversity and innovation in foldforming
that is so clearly manifest in this competition,” said Tim McCreight.

Charles Lewton-Brain, in whose name the annual competition was
created, said “It is wonderful to see such quality, exploratory,
beautiful work being made using foldforming,”

Rio Grande Jewelry Supply of Albuquerque, NM was a generous
co-sponsor of the competition, with gift certificates for the
winners. Winning entrants also received Lewton-Brain’s latest DVD
iteration of his foldform catalogue, plus a hand-selected foldform
for each entrant.

A catalogue of winning entries, which will include a Jurors’ Choice
of additional entries, will be released later this month, through
www.brainpress.com and www.centerformetalarts.com .

Foldforming as a process is best described as a combination of
origami and other metal techniques, especially forging. Goldsmith and
jewelry arts educator Charles Lewton-Brain developed and cataloged
foldforming as a technique in the 1980’s, and the process continues
to spread worldwide among jewelers and metal artists.

Description of the Winning Entries, by the artists.

Rauni Higson, Undersea Candelabra: “Inspired by an underwater forest
of seaweed swaying in the current, the two part Candelabra can be
arranged in various formations to sculptural effect. The rising
elements combine Anticlastic and Synclastic forming with
Fold-forming, to support the 8 candle cups at various heights.” The
candelabra piece is 45 cm. tall, in sterling silver.

Theresa Nguyen, Spiritus: “The inspiration for this piece came from
observing how plant life get their sustenance from the sun and reach
out and respond to its energy. Fold-forming was the key technique
that I used in shaping the silver, the aim being to try and capture
the energy of life that comes from the sun and the energy that is
fully on display in the natural world.”

Kaiya Rainbolt, Quadrant: “This piece has its origins in my 12 x 12
series, and also has no solder or cold connections of any kind.
Dimensions: 5"x 6"x 11.5.”

Grant McCaig, Pleated Silver drinking set on Ebonised base. Fine
Silver oak wood. “I have always been aware of fold forming as a
structural technique, however I came to the process through a desire
to give the blank sheets of silver, that come from the bullion
suppliers, some character before starting to form the vessels. The
lines on the surface exaggerate the movement of the metal compressing
and expanding across the surface.”

For further and high resolution images of the winning
entries, contact: Rhoda Weber Mack, (845) 651-7550
info@centerformetalarts.com, Center for Metal Arts, PO Box 30,
Chester NY 10918.

I sure wish you could publish the winning pictures here, or post a
direct link to them. I want to see what they did!

Allan

[Edit]

How can I share files and pictures with the list?
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ftp

Or… send the files to the attention of service@ganoksin.com and
we will upload them for you…

[/Edit]

For those who have asked: you can see the images of the winning
entries at http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep7zgb ,

with more on the competition and annual Lewton-Brain
Conference on the Center for Metal Arts Facebook page.