New exhibition: Strike a Blow
Metalsmith Simone ten Hompel holds a hammer in an unconventional way; rather than fitting the handle into the space between thumb and fingers and curling her four fingers around it, she extends her index finger along the length of the shaft. This, she explains, creates a connexion between the face of the hammer (the striking surface) and the tip of her finger. Every metalsmith has their own particular grip, and it is this, their individual hold on the tool, that acts like a radio wave, feeding back to the hand information about the moment when the hammer contacts the metal. Simone describes herself as ‘a very excellent dyslexic’, and talks of metal being her chosen language, her personal means of communication. She is interested in language and the derivation of words and points out that the verb to ‘hit’ comes from the Old English word ‘hyttan’ or ‘hittan’, which meant ‘to come upon’ or ‘to meet with’ – the impact between the hammer and the metal creates a moment of discovery.
As guest curator for the Goldsmiths’ Company, Simone has conceived a display for Goldsmiths’ Fair 2024 that highlights the forging of metal objects, the movement of metal with heat and hammers. Ten objects from the Company Collection, accompanied by a small group of six significant loan pieces, are presented in the Exhibition Room with minimal labels, accompanied by a soundscape of hammers and heating torches. Fair visitors are encouraged to view the works as objects in their own right, divorced from ideas of preciousness or material value. Viewers are invited to spend time with the pieces, to question the forms and materials on show, to interrogate the processes of their making – to ‘read’ the objects for themselves.
Ane Christensen’s sterling silver ‘Negative’ bowl is a fine, thin, shallow silver dish with a series of overlapping rectangular areas cut out from its surface; transformed from solid silver into empty spaces, these rectangular voids are delineated by thin silver frames, several of which dizzyingly extend beyond the periphery of the dish. The bowl has become the opposite or obverse of a bowl; the material which is absent becomes as significant as that which is present. Christensen achieves a remarkable sleight of hand, enabling the viewer to see what is not there.
A large vase, hand-raised in fine silver by Japanese silversmith Hiroshi Suzuki, has layers of blue-green translucent enamel across its irregular, faceted surface. The raised ridges between the enamelled facets are burnished silver, creating the effect of cresting waves moving across an open sea. Everything about the vessel suggests shifting shapes and changes in state – solid to liquid, liquid to gas. Looking at the enamel surface, you feel you are looking right through it to the liquid it could hold inside, or up into the sky, as water vapour condenses into clouds. An ephemeral moment is captured, different again each time you look.
Malcolm Appleby, silversmith and jeweller, has raised hundreds of tumbler cups. The silver-gilt example in the exhibition was raised in Britannia silver by Appleby’s apprentice, Callum Strong, under Appleby’s instruction and with a specialist hammer used to create a textured surface. Appleby asked Strong to ‘draw with the hammer’, and the rounded form of the beaker, with its creased surface and heavily crinkled lip, speaks eloquently of silver’s malleability. The temperature changes and physical strength required to shape the tumbler are preserved in its puckered, wrinkled surface.
The ‘Pinecone’ sculpture in pickled fine silver by Junko Mori is formed from individual silver scales, hand-forged and TIG-welded together, each with bright burnished edges to contrast with the soft pickled finish. Its painstaking method of construction speaks of the power of repetition, but also of the role and significance of each individual component within the whole. The completed sculpture, created from the accumulation of hundreds of separate parts, retains a sense of mystery, its individual soul hides behind the complexity of its structure.
Mokume-gane is an ancient Japanese technique whereby layers of different metals are sandwiched together under pressure to construct a patterned laminate. In Alistair McCallum’s tall, slender mokume-gane vase, accompanied by a pair of silver beakers with mokume-gane rims, the abstract patterns created by the layers of different metals become a body of articulated and empathetic lines, each one communicating with the others. Anna Lorenz’s bowl began as a flat disc of Britannia silver, out of which she stamped a series of squares to create a geometric metal grid. This was then hand-raised, hammered over a series of stakes. The raising process, whilst transforming the flat sheet into a functional bowl, simultaneously distorted the regular grid. In the crazy-paving effect of the completed bowl, it is possible to track each hammer blow, like a map upon which Anna marked each step she took to create the piece.
Simone describes the way that each hammer has a different purpose and a different voice: ‘I can only talk about my own experience about hammers. I have seven hammers and I know exactly what they do’. A raising hammer, for example, for raising a bowl or tumbler from a flat sheet, is heavy and bulky, so that it can manipulate the metal as it becomes increasingly rigid during the raising process. A repoussé hammer, however, used with a series of punches for decorative repoussé work, which is to shape metal by hammering it on the reverse, or for chasing, which is to shape metal or refine an existing design from the front, is more delicate. It has a bulbous handle, making it comfortable for repetitive work, and an elongated striking surface. The French word repoussé means ‘pushed up’, the form is pushed out of the metal from the back. The term ‘chasing’ comes from the French word chasseur, to drive out or chase around, and describes the way a shape or an image is sought and captured within the metal.
Different hammers sit differently in the hand, requiring different muscles and different amounts of force. The heavy hallmarking hammer and steel punch in the display were used by His Majesty King Charles III at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in 2022. The King hallmarked the Cross of Wales, a processional cross made by silversmith Michael Lloyd, which led the Coronation procession into Westminster Abbey in 2023. The hefty hammer requires both strength and accuracy to wield correctly, and The King struck several test pieces of silver to get a feel for it before hallmarking the actual Cross. Michael Lloyd later turned these offcuts of silver into napkin rings, beautifully chased with acorns and leaves. A supremely accomplished chaser, Michael will have a large collection of hammers and punches, and will have made many of the latter himself, to achieve a particular effect. Simone describes Michael’s chasing as ‘like ballet, it is not about the exercise, it’s the hovering, the aloofness in gesture.’ Michael himself estimated that the chasing on the Cross of Wales required around 267,000 hammer blows to complete.
In her choice of objects, Simone brings the making processes to the fore, and invites us to consider the hands, the forces, the heat, the noise and the tools required in their construction. This enables us to see something of the alchemy of their creation, of the transformation of flat metal sheet to a myriad of different forms, surface patterns and textures. We hear the sounds of the workshop and see the results of the hammer blows. A second meaning of the verb ‘to blow’ comes from the Old English blowan, meaning ‘to bloom, to blossom, to put forth flowers’. Simone invites us into the world of metalsmithing and talks to us in her language of making; by listening, and looking, we can see the way metal can blossom under each hammer blow.
Learn more about Simone ten Hompel at tenhompel.com
Written by Dr Frances Parton | Photographers: Richard Valencia & Clarissa Bruce
‘Negative’ bowl, 2005, by Ane Christensen. Sterling Silver. Collection: The Goldsmiths’ Company.
Tumbler cup, 2010, by Malcolm Appleby and Callum Strong, Britannia silver and gold. Collection: The Goldsmiths’ Company.
‘Seni’ vase, 2018, by Hiroshi Suzuki. Fine silver and enamel. Collection: The Goldsmiths’ Company.
Hammer used by HM King Charles III to apply the leopard's head hallmark to test pieces of silver and the Cross of Wales at the Goldsmiths' Centre on 23 November 2022. Collection: The Goldsmiths’ Company.