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	<title>Cloisonne and Enamel Jewelry Making</title>
	<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com</link>
	<description>Patsy Croft&#039;s Enamel and Goldsmith Blog</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:58:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Jewelers for the Gulf Donating to a Cause</title>
		<description><![CDATA[News
Here in Orange Beach, Al. Many of  my friends are in trouble and more so in Mississippi and Louisiana 
 

Chris Hierholzer and I are making  jewels and researching a way to help those in need. Anyone interested, enamelist or metalsmith in helping the families whom have lost their livelihood  because of the oil spill stay [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/oil-spill-jewelry-donating-to-a-cause/</link>
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		<title>Color Plates and Understanding Expansion of Enamels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Color Plates
Color plates are very important. And yet so many choose not to do them. I know it takes time and you can get recommendations of colors from other artist, but if you have a direction in your work, by that I mean, a vision of your complete art form, and you want to get [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/color-plates-understanding-expansion-enamels/</link>
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		<title>Trinket Kiln</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Trinket Kiln works very well for enameling and cloisonne small projects. You can purchase a thermostat that reads 800, 1300 and 1500 degrees F.
I have enjoy mind when it is just too hot in the summers and I am working on a small project. It can be handy  to do test plates when I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/trinket-kiln/</link>
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		<title>Enameling on 18k Gold and Repairing Enamel Jewels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Project of the Week
I would like to share my project this week of repairing a beautiful 18k Gold Locket.

When asked by the client if it could be repaired I took a couple of steps to insure them and myself it was possible. They sent me several photos of the locket and had a jeweler in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/project-week/</link>
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		<title>Press Kits</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi Patsy,(your work and blog are Fab)
I’m sure you have been asked this question one thousand times but, here goes… How to I find a rep for my jewelry. I’m an enamelist and have been doing very well at local juried shows and on ETSY.com, but really want and need to take my work to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/1270/</link>
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		<title>Enameling on Gold</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Hibiscus are chased on 18k gold. Flux is applied which is Bovano #3 the the red enamel in two layers.
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		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/enameling-gold/</link>
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		<title>Fluxes And Firing Tempertures</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Fluxes for transparent and medium firing enameling. And firing time varies on the size of your jewel. I work small and like to start around a min and go up in seconds. Just a quick peak in the kiln at eye level you can see if the enamel has fused.
Copper
Fire at 1450 and up to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/fluxes-for-copper-and-silver/</link>
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		<title>Watercolors and Getting Started</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Get yourself a set of Winsor Newton Travel Watercolors, A block of watercolor paper that is Hot Pressed and a #3 Sable brush.
The travel kit of colors have 10 &#8211; 12 colors, all you need to start designing your enameled project. A block of watercolor paper is just that. The stack of paper&#8217;s edges are [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/watercolors-and-getting-started/</link>
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		<title>Carving in the Enamel</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Some thing you can do to enhance your work is to carve in the enamel. On this Nautilus Pendant I used white Askansas Stones to carve out the shape of the shell&#8217;s spiral. 
Hi Jennifer,
Thank for the visit. I was not at the conference, but Merry-Lee Rae presented a lecture on cloisonne and used my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/carving-in-the-enamel/</link>
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		<title>In Our Weekly Town Meetings</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We all know man&#8217;s greed has caused many problems in our world. And here in Orange Beach, Al at our weekly town meetings it is visible that man&#8217;s greed is killing us and all we love and have lived here for. I will never be able to understand, and I know in my life time [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/in-our-weekly-town-meetings/</link>
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		<title>Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore</title>
		<description><![CDATA[GULF SHORES, Ala. – Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/sea-creatures-flee-oil-spill-gather-near-shore/</link>
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		<title>Cracking in the Enamel</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi Patsy,
First of all, thanks for doing this blog; it’s obviously a big help to many people.
I’m relatively new to enamelling; I’ve done mostly flat pieces that have gone basically well. I just enameled a pair of earrings that developed serious cracks. To fabricate them, I cut two pieces of fine silver, textured them, domed [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/cracking-in-the-enamel/</link>
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		<title>What is the Difference Between Lead and Non Lead Enamels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[hi patsy, i want to know that what is the diffrence between lead bearing and lead free enamel. i am from india, doing cloissone and plique-a-jour as well as traditional enameling also. i am using indian enamels.
Hi Preeti,
Lead bearing enamels have lead in them, which makes them flow and blend together nicely. In the US more [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/what-is-the-difference-between-lead-and-non-lead-enamels/</link>
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		<title>Plique a Jour with Brenda Radford</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Brenda Radford of Radford Studios joined me last fall at the FSG Wildacres Masters Workshop where we work on alternative backing techniques for Plique a Jour. We researched and experimented with different products to allow us to create large cell openings to hold the the enamels.
She is kind enough to share her work after returning [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/plique-a-jour-with-brenda-radford/</link>
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		<title>White Specks in Your Enamel</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you see white specks in your enamel, remove them. This is a sign of deterioration. Some times there is only a few and you can remove them before you place any enamel in your work. Sometime the enamel sits on the bottom and water will not penetrate the enamel at all. This it time [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/white-specks-in-your-enamel/</link>
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		<title>Repairing Enamels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Enamels are not very difficult to repair. If a piece has been dropped and cracked you can clean the piece with a jeweler&#8217;s steamer to remove any dirt that might have made it&#8217;s way into the crack. Let it dry!! so not water could be in the crack on top of the kiln as you [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/repairing-enamel-ware/</link>
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		<title>Cloisonne and Torch Firing Enamels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Cloisonne and Torch Firing &#8230;&#8230;.Chris Heirholzer
Amazing simplicity with astounding depth and detail. When art   makes you want to look into it and hold it, he has achieved true art.   This is Chris Hierholzer&#8217;s Collection and Technique. An artist of many   forms from pottery, music, woodworking, even piano restoration, his [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/cloisonne-and-torch-firing-enamels/</link>
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		<title>What are Enamels</title>
		<description><![CDATA[History and Facts About Enamels

Art Enameling on Metals by H.H. Cunynghame  1906
Metals such as gold, silver, iron, copper and fine brass; copper with a small amount of tin, are capable of being enameled. But nickel, zinc, or common brass, which contains a mixture of copper and zinc are not capable of being enameled.  Mr. Cunynghame, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/enamels/</link>
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		<title>Our Hearts are Breaking!!!!!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
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		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/our-hearts-are-breaking/</link>
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		<title>Building a Good Foundation and Test Plates</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It takes time to do test plates but to redo and redo takes more time in the long run. Do test plates. Try to understand hard firing and medium firing enamels and where to use them. All the enamels we buy from Thompson and Ninoniya or Bovano for enameling in jewelry or wall plaques or [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://alohilanidesigns.com/building-a-good-foundation-and-test-plates/</link>
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