Decorated Surface at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

It can be recognized by the smooth, rounded edges of the indentations of the motifs on the underside of the decorated surface. The surface to be embossed is laid on a bed of pitch, which supports the metal surrounding the area being worked while yielding under the pressure of the hammer blows.

One of the most important effects of ocean currents is that they mix ocean water and so affect directly the fertility of the sea. Mixing is especially important when sub-surface water is mixed with surface water. The upwelling [1] of sub-surface water may be caused by strong coastal winds that push the surface water outwards, allowing sub-surface water to rise up. Such upwelling occurs off the coasts of Peru, California and Mauritania. Sub-surface water rich in nutrients (notably phosphorus and silicon) rises to the surface, stimulating the growth of plankton which provides food for great shoals of fish, such as Peruvian anchovies.

Another type of Decoration is damascening, in which wires of gold or silver are hammered into the roughened surface of the metal to be decorated. Larger areas are covered by laying a number of wires side by side or by overlaying the area with sheets of burnished foil. In a related technique much practiced by Oriental armorers the craftsman cuts grooves in which he lays the wires. These processes are used to decorate base metal with precious metal.