Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 11, 2009
Townsend Atelier to host ‘Patina and Metal Finishes’ workshop
Samara Litvack
Townsend Atelier is a local, family-owned business that makes silicone, mold making and casting materials for artists, sculptors, jewelers and craftspeople of all sorts. With 35 years of combined experience, the company provides unique product and professional expertise to customers around the world.
Townsend Atelier also makes metal coatings for the finished products. These coatings are real metal, suspended in a metal binder, which looks like paint in the container but looks like metal once applied. Available in copper, bronze, brass, iron and more, these metal coatings can be painted onto a variety of materials, creating a metal finish on nearly any surface.
Once the metal coating is applied, colors of many sorts can be added in the form of patinas. Such finishes oxidize and change over time, creating a variety of visual effects, such as color changing and rusting.
Peggy Townsend, owner of Townsend Atelier, has pieces in her North Shore office that display both of these materials well. A simple resin mold of a frog, made in house with Townsend Atelier materials, took on a different look when painted with a bronze metal coating. An identical frog mold looked completely different after being painted with a Tiffany Patina, which turned it into a series of greens and bronzes through oxidization.
“The possibilities are really endless,” says Townsend. “The patinas come in the little squirt bottle. You put your metal coating on, you squirt it on and then it’s a chemical reaction. So it starts to change over time and you get these beautiful effects.”
The use of patina has been around a long time. Townsend explains it as an ancient art form, something bronze sculptors in the Classical Era used often. Patinas are readily available for purchase, as are metal coatings, but Townsend says she is unaware of anyone in the Southeast who does them or teaches courses on how to use them.
This is why Townsend Atelier is bringing instructor Ron Young back to Chattanooga from California to teach the Townsend Atelier Fall Workshop entitled “Patinas and Metal Finishes Techniques.”
Young is an internationally recognized expert in the field and founder of the Sculpt Nouveau Company, which produces patinas, waxes and metal finishings, all of which are available for purchase through Townsend Atelier.
“He’s really considered an expert in the field,” says Townsend.
“We’re a distributor for him, so we sell the products on our Web site and then bring him in from time to time. We’ve done some other workshops with him, kind of tag team workshops for Mid South Sculpture Alliance, which is an organization based in Chattanooga for people who love sculpture.”
To be held September 26 and 27 at the Decosimo & Rogers Art Studio on the Southside, the Townsend Atelier Fall Workshop will give students of all levels a wealth of technical information on the techniques, one-on-one consultation and hands-on experience with a wide variety of products.
“The workshop is small enough to where somebody that’s been working with the materials for a long time can come, (as can) someone who’s never touched them at all,” says Townsend. “The way he sets it up, he’ll do a lecture and a demo with a variety of products.
“Then, he’ll send them off to tables that we’ve set up to work on their own. He goes around and gives individualized instruction.”
In past workshops taught by Young, people from all over the country have brought their own sculptures in for consultation or to be metal coated during one-on-one time. Others, who have never before worked with the Sculpt Nouveau materials, have come away from the workshop with new ideas and new methods of artistry.
“The treat about the workshop is that you get a chance to play with all the materials because we provide samples for everyone to work with,” she says. “You get the expert who formulated all these things. He has been doing this for years.”
Townsend says metal coating and patina are useful for all types of artisst. Jewelers can use it on earrings and bracelets. Sculptors can use it on resin casts to alleviate the cost of bronze busts, which can be upwards of $20,000. Even blacksmiths, architects and designers find the technique interesting and beneficial in producing work that stands out from others in their industries.
The ideal size for the workshop is between 12 and 15 participants, so space is limited. The cost is $350 and includes the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday workshop, with lunch and snacks, as well as the 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday workshop, also with lunch and snacks. To register, visit www.sculptnouveau.com or call 1-800-728-5787. For more information, contact Townsend Atelier at info@townsendatelier.com or 423-266-2712, or visit www.townsendatelier.com.
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