Scrolls & Scroll Work
by Mike Chisham, Petaluma, California
The following is a collection of ideas that have been
around ever since man first bent a piece of iron into a
shape that fancied his imagination. The following ideas
are not of my own origin or all of my own creation. I
would Uke at this point to call attention to a couple of
blacksmiths from whom I have learned a great deal
about scroll work. First is Beau Hickory, the Scroll-man
par excellence, and the second is Francis Whitaker, The
Master. I have acquired an innumerable amount of
information from many other people, too many to
mention here.
(Figure 1). If this does not happen, then you have only a
piece of twisted-up and bent metal, in which case, the
scroll is wrong and the customer is right. Yup - they're
right. For how many times have we heard them say that
they want those curlicues on their ironwork? And that
is just what they are: curlicues. Then again, when I think
of a curly Q, I think of a pig's tail, and I have seen very
few works of art on the hind end of a pig (Figure 2). The
most commonly used figure for scrolls is the volute, and
also used is the spiral. The French ironwork makes a lot
of use of the volute (Figure 3). This style of scroll makes
one and one-half revolutions from its start to its
termination. 
The space between the ironwork itself is
referred to as the negative space and this space must be
continually getting larger. If the space were to stay
constant, then you would not have a volute, but rather a
spiral. The spiral is used extensively in Spanish-style
ironwork (Figure 4). You will commonly see both styles
of ironwork readily visible in this country. The third
style is what I refer to as the Victorian scroll. This scroll
still has a continually increasing negative space, but it
only makes one revolution in 360', making it a very hard
scroll to form on a scrolling iron (Figure 5).
To properly draw an S scroll see (Figure 8). As
previously mentioned, a lot of times two C scrolls are
called an S scroll (Figure 9) One other important fact to
note is that for the negative space to he continuously
getting larger, then the metal itself must be tapered. A
lot of so-called scrolls have flat ends that are placed
between two pieces of metal to aid in starting the scroll,
These are not scrolls, rather a warped piece of
semi-ruined metal, metal from a like maker (Figure 10).
with its surroundings. If the piece has a single flowing
design to it, this is commonly referred to as a floral design
(Figure 11). 
A floral design has a beginning and an ending place
that are obvious within the design itself. If the same design is
repeated as a mirror image on the other side, then a design in
this case is no longer floral but becomes semi- or half-symmetrical
(Figure 12). Gates are usually done in this style of designing. Half
symmetrical can be symmetrical from the top to the bottom or from the left to the right. If the
design were to be mirror images from the top to the bottom and
at the same time from left to right, then the design
would be full symmetrical (Figure 13). Many traditional
panels and window guards are good examples of this.
When one scroll comes off another, then they must
conform to the rules of Mother Nature and therefore
never come off at an unorthodox angle (Figure 14).
direction off the same parent scroll (Figure 16).
Usually when this scroll is used, the C scrolls are either diminishing or
enlarging in size off the parent scroll. Then again in some instances,
the small C scrolls all stay the same size (Figure 17).