Keeping Things Clean

I read everything I can find on enameling. And last year I found a book written in the late 1800’s. There was a chapter on keeping the studio and kiln clean. I was happy to see this as I have heard many many times how anal enamelist are.

One thing most enamelist do not like is to get oxides in their fired enamel piece. It can cause cracking and bubbles. So the best way is to keep your kiln and trivets free of these oxides. The oxidation builds up on your trivets from use. So you need to wipe them off from time to time.

I use a blow dryer every few firings and blow out the kiln. Also the enamel can building up on your trivet, you can scrap it off and add some jeweler’s rouge to prevent this. This jewelers rouge is also what you want to put on the iron if you needed to flatten you work that is warping.

I use distilled water to wash my enamels. And I look prior to using the washed enamels for spots of deterioration. These look like small white spots. And when fired will remain white spots. If you see them and pull them out usually you are okay. But as you continue to work and notice the enamels are floating on the surface, you may have to take further action.

I had a lot of trouble a couple of years ago with enameling going bad. You can throw them away and reorder. You can re-wash them all along way while using the wet enamel. To remove the floaties. This mold like substance grows on wet enamels. So they may not show up in the beginning but hours later while sitting wet. You can rinse them with nitric and water. But not your reds. One problem that arises from this is it hardens the enamel. Meaning it is now a higher fire or longer fire enamel. Which can be used to advantage if you need it.

Happy Enamels!

Patsy

Enameling with Argentium 970

Argentium 970 is currently sold in grain and only from this one dealer, G&S Metals. I just spoke with them and asked why they do not offer it in sheet and other forms. The answer was they have not had the request for offering it. I explained the interest of enamelist. And was told they have a blog on the home page top left. They would be happy to listen.So enamelist here is an opportunity.   www.gsgold.com/ blog away!

I will purchase the grain and start some testing for plique a jour. I do not see a need for cloisonne as fine silver is great. But it would also be a good metal for vessels.

Happy Enamels

Enamel on Brass

You can enamel on brass.  Art Enameling on Metals by H.H. Cunynghame refers to enameling on brass. And Thompson’s Enamel sells it. Gilder’s Metal  is how it is listed and it is copper with a bit of zinc, 95% – 5 %.  It works with transparent enamels, sold for gold, silver, and copper, = medium expansion enamels, according to the their experts and you have no need for flux as it does not oxidize like copper.

Don’t fire it too often. After three or more firings, the enamel can jump off. Enamelled badges and emblems are very often made of gilding metal.

Nestlé products taking a bite out of rainforests

When you’re biting into some of Nestlé’s most popular products – like PowerBar, Butterfinger, and Nestlé Crunch Crisp you could be taking a bite out of precious rainforests. A new report we released shows that Nestlé has purchased palm oil linked to Paradise Forest destruction in Southeast Asia.

Growing global demand for palm oil is fueling the destruction of rainforests in Indonesia to make way for expanding palm plantations. Fire is often used to clear forests, causing massive, polluting blazes. Illegal canals are cut into ancient peatlands, draining water and releasing methane and other potent greenhouse gases.

We need your help to tell Nestlé to stop destroying rainforests for palm oil.
Green Peace

Working with Foils

I’d like to pass on some info about working with foil that I’ve been experimenting with. I use a lot of foil with my work with limoges.
I place foil between two pieces of ribbon or fabric and then lightly burnish. The gold foil is ready to apply but the silver gets a little curly and difficult to keep down. I take the silver foil and anneal it on a glass top stove by turning the burner on high and place the foil with tweezers on the hot burner and turn with the tweezers when the foil starts showing color from the heat. don’t want to let it set for to long… you must keep turning until the foil relaxes. The reflective quality with enamels is stunning. make sure that a clear enamel is applied over foil before color. When firing the foil I tap it lightly with a small pallet knife if any of it starts to lift. Just like with cloison wires.
Chris Hierholzer

Cloisonne Enamel of Debbie Parent

Foils in Cloisonne!

Debbie was very kind to share her Colisonne Enamel Jewel. It is fantastistic. I love the effect of over filling the cloisonne cells and here she has used it very well! If you click on the image it gets larger and you can get a better view of  the jewels on the bridle. And in may of them she has used foils. Excellent!  Thanks Debbie

Oceans

Dive into the oceans to see why the seas are in peril and how we can work together to save them.

I wish people would. I will never forget living in Hawaii. I was very fortunate to do so and I know being there everyday fallen in love with it all really hurts to see what people did to this amazing beauty. I use to swim with several girlfriends three days a week when the waves were down. We would go directly off shore for about a mile out. I was spectacular! So clear and so many fish.

When you would return to shore the guest would be on the beach soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the blue clear water. But as you watched they would let their plastic wrapers and toys blow in the ocean and never try to retrieve them. I would ask why, why do you come to see this beauty and yet leave your trash!

In some areas where the large rocks on the ocean floor were close together the trash would collect And yes there were coke cans plastic bottles and film canisters and more. It has never made since to me. I only pray we can all get busy and help.

This week on Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/oceans and here you can read more.

On the surface, the ocean may look calm and serene. But, beneath the surface is a different story. All around the world, our oceans are in crisis. Whale slaughter continues to put endangered species at risk and pollution from land-based sources is turning the oceans into a dumping ground. Throughout the seven seas, there are many industries committing crimes against nature, but no one is holding them accountable.

Even the deep and remote areas that once served as refuges from fishing are no longer safe havens; today the fish have no place to hide.  Just as threatening to the ecosystem is the impact that depleted fisheries has on other fish, marine mammals, and sea birds.  Local human communities too face dire consequences.  All that rely on other robust fisheries for food must compete in depleted fisheries for sustenance and their way of life.  The competition is huge factory ships employing massive trawling nets.

It’s time to shine a spotlight on their dirty little secrets, and expose the world to the destruction of an underwater realm few would otherwise see.

Greenpeace has been calling attention to the Bering Sea (waters between the United States and Russia). It’s home to some of the largest submarine canyons in the world. The Bering Sea is also home to a diverse array of wildlife. Polar bears, seals, sea lions, walruses, whales and millions of seabirds call the Bering Sea home.

Log on to Greenpeace and see how you can help. It is your home also.

I could never Imagine!

The Conversation: Atlantic Rower Katie Spotz
ABC’s Diane Sawyer Talks With the Youngest Person to Row Solo Across an Ocean
March 18, 2010—

22-year-old Katie Spotz has completed a monumental journey. She arrived in South America on Sunday after rowing solo across across the Atlantic Ocean.
Are there things you have done in you life that you that you really stepped off the edge?
Spotz is now the youngest person to have ever completed a solo transoceanic trip. It took her 70 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes. Spotz spent 10 to 12 hours rowing every day, tracking her progress on Twitter using satellites.

What does it take to make it across the Atlantic? And what drives a 22-year-old from Ohio to make the journey? ABC’s Diane Sawyer posed those questions and more to Spotz in today’s Conversation.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

Check it out… http://na.oceana.org/en/blog/2010/03/the-scanner-0

Pilque a Jour

Millenet in Enamelling on Metal states to use larger granules of enamels, consistent in size for plique to acquire a clearer transparent. Also he puts the Klyr Fire against the cell wall then adds the enamel.

Light Up Your Watercolors by Linda Stevens Moyer

Great book on watercolors. She uses the white of the paper to stay bright as we would use our fine silver. Adding warm colors and light to make the information come forward and shadows to help you see the layering.

I wanted to add here if you get this book and do the exercise she has for you, it helps you understand more about layering colors to achieve bright colors. Afterwards practice layering in enamels. Yes make color plates and layer some colors as she did. But enamels have to layer in a different order.

Water colors can layer yellows first then reds and pinks followed by the darker colors, like blues and greens. In enameling our warm color burn out so we need to leave them toward the end. So you just have to apply this in reverse. I start with the darkest colors first. Then medium and light colors. As I layer and fire I leave out the darkest color and continue with the medium and light colors. And finally have my lightest color last.

So enamelist add fluxes to the last layers to fill the cell. I have had this get cloudy on me so I continue with color just very light. The warm colors you can start adding about half way through the project using flux for several layers then jumping into the yellows oranges and reds.

Soon, I will photo color charts and discuss this more! Check back.

Great Book!

Cloisonne Enamel: The opaque white coming into the transparent. I think it was leaking under the cloison wires?

Hello, I had a go with some transparent enamels this time in my cloisonne, but I had a problem with the opaque white coming into the transparent. I think it was leaking under the cloison wires? I tried to fire the opaque and transparent at the same time, I think was a mistake? I think the opaque leaked under the wire at the higher temperature it takes to fire clear?

Thanks for your kind assistance (I need it!)

Geoff,

Your cloisonne work looks great, you have the transparent green nice and clear.  In my experience when you apply the cloison wires and sink them down into the flux you should not have one color moving into other cells. If the wire is not all the way in the flux when you apply the colors the enamel can travel under the cloison wires. Lets say you put in the opaques enamel in all assigned cells of the cloisonne piece, and it is now dry after going all the way around. When you put in the second color = green here, it is wet and will suck the opaque enamels through any open space under the wire. The dry enamels will move toward the water. You even have to be careful the enamel it does not come through on the sides where the cloison wires are not real tight, as I can see here where the dark color enamel pulled through into the aqua cell.

So just check after you sink the cloison wires into the flux enamel that you have complete contact. If you do not I would rather burnish the wires down carefully, as they are very soft now and re-fire. This is common on a domed surface. Also as I work I try to keep the piece damp to avoid this and dry it all at once before firing.

Great job! Patsy

W.W. Carpenter Enamel Foundation Third Biennial “Get Together”

Focus on Fire, the torch, in and out of context

First week of August, 2010

W.W. Carpenter Enamel Foundation, Bellevue, KY

We’ve invited three known individuals who teach torch firing as part of their individual reference as enamelers. Each has their own approach and uniqueness. Each will teach three, two-day workshops. You will have an opportunity to do a workshop with all three instructors.

____________________________________________________________________

Steve Artz is a master carpenter by trade and has been an exhibiting enamelist since his discovery of the luscious medium while attending San Diego State University in 1975. He is well known for his innovative approach to fusing glass to metal and inventive ways of texturing metal. Steve is a working member and former president of both the San Diego Enamel Guild and Enamel Guild West. He is also a former trustee of the Enamelist Society.

“This is the guy to see. Steve is a very inspiriting enamel artist! He is fun, makes the work fun, and creates beautiful pieces! ” Patsy Croft

Out of Print Books

If you are in need of a book that is out of print Skip Pridgen at, books@tappinbookmine.com has been a great resource for me.

Guild of Enamellers’ Bursary Award for 2010

The Guild of Enamellers is delighted to announce the winner of their annual Bursary Award – Bronagh Mullan who has recently graduated from Birmingham City University, School of Jewellery where her interest in enamelling was sparked when she attended a part-time course by a visiting tutor and practising enameller, Penny Davis. This motivated Bronagh to use enamel throughout her remaining jewellery projects at university, experimenting with opaque and transparent enamels.

The Selectors for the Award were particularly impressed by Bronagh’s rare gift for combining traditional enamelling techniques with modern technology such as laser marking and JewelCAD but all her jewellery is hand-finished. Using plique à jour she brings delicate colourful enamel detail to the more aggressive shapes in her work, harmonizing these two opposing styles to produce a balanced end product. Her passion for enamelling results in well executed detailed pieces in precious metal, incorporating enamel and stone setting in interesting positions.

Bronagh is currently working as a jewellery designer for a manufacturer in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Meanwhile in her own time she continues to experiment with enamelling and hopes to exhibit in the New Year. The Guild of Enamellers is proud to support Bronagh’s ambition to further develop her skills.

info from www.guildofenamellers.org

Enameling on Steel

“When Joseph Trippetti returned from the Army in 1946, he studied for three years at Philadelphia College of Art and the fourth year at Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts in England, where he majored in silversmithing. He has been enameling since the 1950s. For some years he taught enameling and painting before concentrating on commissions and gallery exhibitions. The medieval tapestries still influence his designs. His cloisonnés were on domed copper plaques before he turned to large steel tiles.”

Musician: 16″ x 16″, silver cloisonné wires. steel, enamel.

“Design is my main interest. My method of enameling has remained about the same these many years. Originally, my work was mainly of cloisonné on domed copper plaques. I trained as a metalsmith. For the past 15 years I have been working on white pre-coated, flanged, steel plaques, ranging in size from 6″ x 6″ to 16″ x 20″. Using the pre-coated, steel tiles I do not have to be concerned with cleaning the metal and applying base coats. I use primarily 80 mesh opaque, leaded, unwashed enamels, though I also have some 150 mesh enamels and some unleaded enamels that I use when I need those colors. To use them all in one piece, the unleaded enamel needs to be under the leaded enamel and not on top. The enamels, wet with water, are wet packed with a brush almost to the top of the wires, and then the piece is tapped to level out the enamel and fired. Before each firing, any opaque enamel on the wires is removed with a fine pointed brush. It usually takes about 8 to 10 applications of the enamel, tapping and firing for the fired enamel to reach almost the top of the wires.

The final firing, with just a thin sifting of either soft or medium flux over the whole piece, is a healthy firing with the kiln at 1500°F before inserting the plaque into the kiln. I do not wet the piece for the sifted coat.  For me, the most important stage in the making of each enamel is the pen drawing of my design.”

You can read more on his techniques in the book Enameling with Profressionals, by Lilyan Bachrach, and it is posted on Gonaskin’s Webite at www.ganoksin.com

Excellent Work!