The inspiration behind our work can come from everywhere and everything. You can imagine how excited and honored we were when we had clients, whose home was built by our dear friends at Dillard Jones Builders, approach us with inspiration from abroad. Our clients had vacationed in Italy, exploring its popular tourist destinations, stunning coasts and expansive countrysides. The Italian country, full of rolling green pastures and farmland is what really caught our clients’ eyes. While we certainly have our fair share of farmland in America, there was an old world quaintness to the region unlike anything our clients had previously experienced. They were dying to take a piece of it back home with them to America. Our clients took several photos of the beautiful scenery and commissioned an artist to paint the scene. But they weren’t satisfied just yet. Our clients wanted the Italian countryside infused into their home. So, they came to us.
We decided along with our clients that a backsplash of the scene would be the best option to display the landscape. Kitchens are so often the heart of the home and Italians are known for their hearty and authentic meals so transitioning the painting into a backsplash seemed like the obvious choice. Our clients gave James Moseley the painting as inspiration to create the backsplash.
James was able to recreate the scene in copper using two techniques: repoussé and chasing. Repoussé means that metal work is to be hammered into relief from the reverse side. It is a French term for “pushing out”. James flipped the copper on the backside and drew the scene in reverse, chiseling and pushing out the copper. He then flipped it back over and used the chasing technique and finished creating the scene pushing in the copper. Furthermore, the term chasing is derived from the noun “chase”, which refers to a groove, furrow, channel or indentation. The adjectival form is “chased work”. The techniques of repoussé and chasing use the plasticity of metal, forming shapes by degrees. James and Josh worked on this hand-hammered kitchen backsplash for three to four days straight before completing the piece.