Profiting by Design

I would recommend this book the any artist! And in today’s tough market, Marlene reminds you to take a good look at the bottom line, and where to find your niche.

“Profiting By Design” by Marlene Richey www.marlenerichey

Watercolors

A great way to get a better idea if your

enameling will deliver what you imagined.

I begin my enameling classes with an introduction

to watercolors. Because I enjoy imagery  in my work,

it is not as spontaneous as some. At one time I completed

my jewel to be made in colored pencils.

In searching to improve my artistry I could not find classes

devoted to colored pencils and discovered watercolors.

They use washes and layering. For me the layering is most like enameling, where I apply a layer of enamels and fire before applying another color,  they apply a layer of color and let it dry before applying another.

One book that was useful to me is “Light up your Watercolors” by Linda Stevens Moyers. In her book she starts color with the medium color = value, then going to her warm colors = interest points, and then the cool colors this being her darks. We need to layer in a different order as our warm color would burn out. So I try to apply them in the order of cool colors – my dark color first, and  medium color = value colors and last the warm color to produce the impact of color.

Happy Enameling!

Art Nouveau’s “Imperishable Beauty”

Just left the Cincinnati Art Museum. I will post as soon as I know where it will travel to.

This is a must see. To view this closely these master pieces is unbelievable!

The book is available at Amazon.

History Of Enamels

Coming Soon

Pilque à Jour

What is Plique à Jour

Miniature stain glass window effect in jewelry. Frames of metal with no backing allowing the light to come through. Developed in France and Italy early in the 14th century.  There are several methods of plique à jour, and I will show you the techniques I use.

This is how we usually think of pierced plique à jour. Most artists will use this method with the aid of Klyre Fire, a glue substance, to help  hold in the powdered enamels before firing. This piece of plique à jour is created in 18k gold sheet of 22 ga.  The use of gold gives you more strength and allows you to create jewels in a thinner gauge.

The Bird of Paradise Pendant is more involved. I want to show where you can go with pliqué a jour. Here I have chased the Bird of Paradise in 18k gold sheet of 16 ga. and cut away the negative space. I used 18k flat wire to make the leaves and soldered them in place with hard solder. With such large open spaces the use of foils aid in holding the enamel in, until fired, then removed. The stone setting took place before the enameling. Less worry of cracking your enameled piece.

This is a pair of cloisonné earrings with a drop of plique à jour leaves and a ruby. I would never get a stone cut like this much less be able to afford it. The leaves above the ruby is 18 ga sheet pierced and sawn out and filled with enamels.

This is a nice option when you have an unusual shape or maybe you do not have the color of stone you would like for your jewel on hand. This can be accomplished with creating a shape with 18k gold wire and soldered closed. The enamels in this case were laid in after the ruby was set. You can use Klyre Fire or back with foils to aid in holding the enamels in place prior to firing.

This enamel jewel of plique a jour is made of 18k gold sheet. The pedals have been sawn out and formed in a dapping block. The opens were pierced and filled with enamels  using foil for support. And assembled after firing.

Join Gansokin.com

It is easy to join Gansokin. And if you have not joined be sure to do so. It is a great place to see what other jewelers are talking about and has a hugh resource library.

The Ganoksin Project
http://www.ganoksin.com/index.htm

The gem and jewelry world’s foremost information resource on the Internet. Open to the public, Free of charge – a substantial library of articles, publications, reports, and technical data on gem and jewelry related topics; as well as a sizable collection of art and jewelry galleries, for both the casual visitor and the professional.

Stone Setting in Enamels

Happy New Year Patsy- I will definitely pre enroll for the class- love the idea of the website!! Am currently working on a pair of earrings set with tiny (3mm) sapphires. I decided to wing it and go ahead & set the stones in a 24k thin bezel on top of gold foil and an initial coat of B3. So far they have not cracked or changed color. Any other tips that you could email me re: stone setting in enamel would be so appreciated.
Thank you so much! Karen

Karen,

I would love to see photos, I have fired sapphires, good choice, and did not have any problems. You can do all the enameling and set them before the last firing, or after you have polished the piece. I usually put stones in the kiln at 1400 degrees to see if it will take the heat, small ones = 1 mm just incase they crack, I am not out too much $. When we get together I will show you how to set a stone that will not take the heat after all the firing. Good to hear you went for it.

Dear Patsy- thanks so much for the fast and valuable advice. I was worried about the empty bezel warping- that is why I set the stones so early on in the enamelling process. Will cross my fingers & hope the stones remain O.K. Will send pictures when my technological situation improves. Again, thank you!! Karen

Karen,
I have only seen the wire work warp when there is enamel on the inside of in a small space, and no enamel on the outside of the wire work, here the wires will pull in. So leaving it open or putting the stone in will be fine. If you send photos about the work as you are working on it, I think this will be interesting to others.
Thanks for sharing!

Readings

Enameling on Metal, by Louis-Elie Millenet 1927

Metalwork & Enameling by Herbert Maryon

Art Enameling on Metals by H.H. Gunynghame

These last three were not written in our life time. But we sure have had plenty. These are interesting to me as you get a chance to hear how our Masters worked with enamels.

TRANSFERRING YOUR DESIGNS

TRANSFERRING YOUR DESIGNS

After you have drawn your image on paper, it is sometimes difficult to transfer this image to the base of Fine Silver. A couple of things that might help you, after you have fired the flux coat on the Fine Silver base, is to use either a Stabilo pencil or Spot Pens (made for black and white photography retouching). You can sketch out the design on the fired flux enamel coat with either of these, and place your cloisonne wires accordingly.

The lines of both will disappear in the first firing and not effect your enamels.