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’s Collection and Technique. An artist of many forms from pottery, music, woodworking, even piano restoration, his collection and technique of torching enamels is inspirational.

I was fortunate to spend the day with Chris and see his technique first hand and yes he is making enamel jewelry even cloisonné jewelry with a torch.

Chris and I began our conversation after reconnecting when I started this new website. I will leave the beginning of these comments as there is valuable information in them also. Be sure to read all the way down as he shared a photo demo of his technique.

May 2, 2010

“My only experience with torch firing enamels is in trying to add a finding that has come off in the process of making a cloisonné jewel. What I found is you have to heat it indirectly as the fumes from the flame discolor the enamels.” Patsy

“The discoloration most likely came from the enamel being leaded. If you heated from the top then it will discolor. Sometimes when I fire leaded with a torch if the flame is to big combined with it being a reduction flame it will discolor the edges. Only fire from the bottom…..I place a thick soldering screen on 2 fire bricks on end and fire from the bottom…slowly bring fire up so the thermal shock won’t warp the metal or fracture the enamel…I start with the tip of the flame about 8 inches bellow the piece and stay there for 2 min. or so and then come up another 1 inch and stay for a minute or so…just keep repeating until the enamel melts…don’t let the tip of torch come closer than 2 inches from bottom of enamel….also I fire on a 3 prong trivet on top of the soldering screen….the soldering screen should be substantial….

…….since the leaded enamels don’t do so well after multiple firings with a torch……….Coral Schaeffer has some Ninomiya unleaded enamels that compliment thompsons… and work well with torch firings”.

Some of Chris’ work,

Congo Mask, Missionary Series…Cloisonne,fine silver,fine gold foil,sterling silver. Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2006      Jelly Bean Mask, Animation Series…Cloisonne, fine silver, fine gold foil, sterling silver. Leaded Enamels, Ninomiya. Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2006

.Color of water series….Limoges,copper,fine silver and gold foil,sterling silver. Non Leaded Thompson Enamel.Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2008

Chris sharing his torch firing technique.

Chris fusing the counter enamel.

And fusing the flux coat on the front of a copper disc.

Slowly heating and coming a little closer,

My flash hides how glowing red hot the copper piece was as well as the trivet.

And Chris is a master at handling foils, he uses ribbon to give the foil texture. If you are near Florida he has a class coming up with FSGNE July 17 at noon, in Deland, Fla. Don’t miss it!

And many thanks Chris for sharing in the growth of enameling.

Chris email contact chrismhier@comcast.net And if you look at the setup Chris is using it is made by Steve Artz and his contact is nbrainr@cox.net he would be happy to make one for you!

If I have a project of cloisonne and it will be a deep layering of colors I need an enamel base flux that will hold up for many firings. This is when you need the harder firing flux. Bovano 3# is a harder firing flux than any others I have tried.

Hi Patsy,
I am very frustrated because I am unable to keep from burning out my oranges, reds, pinks and some purples. I am using Ninomyas and some Thompson leaded enamels. I have tried changing temperatures and length of firing. Can you please recommend the best method of keeping my colors clear and bright? I keep getting a phlegmy looking yellowy brown. Are there any particular colors that are best to use. I seem to have a little better luck when I use them over gold. I always have flux under them regardless. I am firing at around 1350 for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

I am starting to do art shows/festivals this year and am trying to produce a large number of pieces. So I really need to fix this asap or all of my work will be in blues and greens.
Any tips on figuring out how many pieces I need to have per show?

Thanks,
Sher

Hi Sher,

With that temp you can get very tiny bubbles when firing too low, try to stay at 1400 – 1425 degrees for 1 minute 15 seconds and with checking . So I would think right off, you are laying in your warm colors too soon. Are you using FS base and a FS cloison wires or gold cloison wires? As the FS colison wires are hotter.

I only want to fire my warm colors a couple of times. So I will use the flux in the cells for the warm colors each time I fill all the cells until it is at my last couple of layers. This way I have an option of an additional firing just in case I crack the piece in setting.

I use Bovano flux #3 as it has a blue base tint that will help keep the yellow and it is a harder fire that the Ninomiya #3 flux. So this means the warm colors will not mingle with the base of fine silver as soon. When you are firing at a long time, I know you are trying to stop the burn out but think. The base gets hot = the fine silver and holds the heat. Then the flux gets liquid and the color layer you are melting mingles with the flux coat and eventually with the fine silver. So if you fire a bit faster the base will not get as liquid as you only need to melt the top layer of color. Your color enamels melts faster than your flux.

Also if you do test plates try to use yellows that have an ash base, such as Ninomiya H24 and N26. The oranges the same, look at the test and you can see it has an ash base, like Ninomiya N21. It is not as bright of an orange but if you put N24 first then the N21 this brightens your orange.

You really have to do the test plates and analyze the colors. On my pink color plate with 14 colors I can see some have a yellow base and some have a blue base. Use the blue base first then the yellow base one to get a brighter color, in the same color family. Do color plates and use all your warm colors, one of all reds and one of all yellows, and fire several time to see which of the reds and which of the yellows burn first. Then you really know which can handle more firings. It takes time but when it is all over you will be very confident of the end result.

Hope this helps!

Patsy, Thank you for your in depth answer. I am definitely going to have to analyze your response in regard to the enamels that I am using for the yellow/blue base factor. Funny that you suggested the 1400/1min 15sec. It is exactly what I was doing before I switched to 1350 and 1 1/2 – 2 min firing. I had thought that lower temperature might mean less burning. Your explanation of melting the flux and having the colors mingle was fascinating. Ahhh, that must be why it works better over gold foil? I am only using fine silver for the base and wires. I finish my pieces with a lapidary grinder so I will have to have some layers of safety at the surface so I don’t grind off my colors. I will try putting the warms closer to the surface though. It makes a lot of sense.

Bovano flux? You have been mixing it with the Ninomiyas and it’s okay? Which flux do you recommend for filling the cloisons over the color layers? I can’t imagine having 14 pinks! I can’t even get a good pink out of one of my enamels. Reds, pinks and oranges have become my own personal nightmare.

Thank you so very very much for your help. Your generosity of knowledge is amazing and I am grateful. I wish I could be playing, right now it really feels like work. The pressure is on to build an inventory.

Take care,
Sher

Sher,
When using fine silver base and fine silver cloison wires I find it very difficult to use warm colors. Silver causes a lot of heat. So I use a bit of flux against the walls of the fine silver cloison wires as Ninomiya #3, or a baby blue,  as these are medium firing enamels. You do not want a hard firing flux against the wires then a medium firing enamel colors next to it as you will have cracking. You can layer a hard firing enamel then a medium firing enamel but not next to each other.

I use a lapidary machine also. I try to fill as level as possible so not to have high spots that could cause me to loose my color. I prefer not to use a finishing flux. When I was beginning I had the flux get cloudy over other colors and decided to avoid them. So I just continue with color. If you have the concentration of color you want just use a light color in the same family.

Yes Bovano can be used it as a base with Ninomiyas. With it being a harder enamel is perfect for the base. And it is a blue base which I also think helps. If you do color plates ( small dots on the same plate) and you see one enamel melts before the rest, that will tell you it is a lower melting and softer enamel. If it takes longer to melt it is harder. These should always be in the lower layers and the softer enamels on the top layers. That is exactly what Ninomiya’s N4 is, a soft enamel and used for the last coats, as it melts faster.

Come and have a class and we can get all the reds, oranges and pinks you want to master. I spent many months doing test plates. You would be surprised how much you can learn in a day or two!

Patsy

Patsy,

You are a genius! Wow! I did a very non-technical test. I filled the cloisons with N-3 flux half way up and then laid down very thin layers of 3 different pinks and voila! They look like pinks. I haven’t covered them with flux to the tops of the wires yet. Hopefully I’m not celebrating prematurely but it looks pretty great to me.

I really need to take your class!

Thank You,
Sher
Sher,

Not a genius but a lot of test plates and thinking. Your success is awesome. I believe cloisonne is the most difficult enameling processes, many many factors to remember. When you have time upload your photos of before success and after. It will help other learn!

Love enameling!

Hi Patsy,

The experimental piece with pinks and purples turned out great, even with layers of flux over it. At the very end, I think I over did it and the N15 turned a little orange but it’s still okay. I think that learning from you would be a great opportunity and the expenses are reasonable. I’ll attach a few photos.

Hi Patsy, The experimental piece with pinks and purples turned out great, even with layers of flux over it. At the very end, I think I over did it and the N15 turned a little orange but it’s still okay. I think that learning from you would be a great opportunity and the expenses are reasonable. I’ll attach a few photos from my zapplication Sher

What I found is you have to heat it indirectly as the fumes from the flame discolor the enamels.

Patsy

“The discoloration most likely came from the enamel being leaded. If you heated from the top then it will discolor. Sometimes when I fire leaded with a torch if the flame is to big combined with it being a reduction flame it will discolor the edges. Only fire from the bottom…..I place a thick soldering screen on 2 fire bricks on end and fire from the bottom…slowly bring fire up so the thermal shock won’t warp the metal or fracture the enamel…I start with the tip of the flame about 8 inches bellow the piece and stay there for 2 min. or so and then come up another 1 inch and stay for a minute or so…just keep repeating until the enamel melts…don’t let the tip of torch come closer than 2 inches from bottom of enamel….also I fire on a 3 prong trivet on top of the soldering screen….the soldering screen should be substantial….

……….since the leaded enamels don’t do so well after multiple firings with a torch……….Coral Schaeffer has some Ninomiya unleaded enamels that compliment thompsons… and work well with torch firings”.

Chris Hierholzer

Chris has shared some of his wonderful work, photos and descriptions.

Congo Mask, Missionary Series…Cloisonne,fine silver,fine gold foil, sterling silver. Leaded Enamels, Ninomiya. Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2006

Jelly Bean Mask, Animation Series…Cloisonne, fine silver, fine gold foil, sterling silver. Leaded Enamels, Ninomiya. Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2006

Color of Water series….Limoges,copper,fine silver and gold foil,sterling silver. Non Leaded Thompson Enamel.Tab set and torch fired. Brooch 2008

Pendant, Nocturnal pirouette series…Limoges,copper,fine gold foil,fine silver foil,sterling silver. Non Leaded Thompson Enamel. Tab set and torch fired. 2010

Thank you Chris for sharing!

And Chris will be giving a demo of his work in Tallahassee Sunday May 22.

Visit www.fsgnw.com/ for all the info.

Patsy

Cloisonne (pronounced cloy-zon-ay, French for ”partition”) is an ancient metalwork technique that makes use of small, precious metal filaments and colorful glass enamels to create brilliant artwork. The metal wires are bent into shapes to create small cells, (partitions) of designs, and many coats of finely ground glass enamel are fired into them until one unique piece of art is rendered. Cloisonne is most commonly used in jewelry making, though illustrations of the craft can be found in many facets of the art world, including the production of hand-made dishes, vases and abstract pottery.

Though the art form’s origins are most likely Middle Eastern, Chinese Cloisonne is the most renowned and permeated throughout the world. Cloisonne’s popularity spread quickly throughout Asia and Europe, and examples of the art can be seen in Byzantine

mosaics, inside Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and in prized Russian Czarist jewelry. The most notable quality in Cloisonne is the art master’s exceptional attention to detail in creating unique designs from the pure silver base and 24 karat gold filaments. Every design is handcrafted, which guarantees a matchless piece of art each time. Custom designs are often painted on paper with watercolors prior to beginning the process in order to estimate the appearance of the final product.

After the original artwork is decided upon, the metal ribbon like strands of 24 karat gold wire are individually bent, twisted and oftentimes soldered together to produce a blueprint for where the colored enamels will later be painted.

This design is attached to a base of pure silver by firing it with a clear coat of glass enamel in a kiln.

After the silver pendant has cooled from its initial firing, the painting process begins. The metal filaments serve as the pattern for the colorful enamel glass, and the artisan paints only one coat at a time into the design.

The pendant is fired again and again after each consecutive enamel coat. This is a painstakingly delicate practice, but the layering and firing of each coat of glass is critical in achieving a deep, vibrant color scheme for the design. As many as 25 layers of enamel can be added to a single piece of Cloisonne jewelry. After the partitions have been enameled and fired to the artist’s satisfaction,

The pendant is polished and placed in a custom-made, perfectly fit 18-karat gold setting. Each Cloisonne rendering takes multiple weeks of dedicated attention to complete, but the finished product is guaranteed to be worth the wait. Happy Enameling!

One of the most important things is to glass brush the sanded area, be sure it is dry and fire. This way there is no shadow of the cloisonne repair work.And now you can apply more enamels to level the repair of the jewel.

There is more detail on this under Cloisonne and Repairing Cloisonne.

Back to play!

This is a cloisonne piece I am currently working on and thought it          

would be a good opportunity to show how things can move.

If you are prepared for this you can make it work to your advantage.

There is a concentration of wires in the top left of my design. As I am layering in my enamels the cloisonne jewel starts to bow up in this area.

Here you can see the top left of the enamel piece is higher, and the right base of the enamel piece is bowing. This is common in Cloisonne. And can cause several problems if not dealt with. One, as you have planned your warm colors in the high area you could sand it all off while trying to make a nice even dome. Second in setting the right side will be higher and maybe your bezel will not cover the same as on the left side.

And the farther you go without knowing and planning more can go wrong. The counter enamel also likes the heat and will pool under this area, and can cause the enamel jewel to start sinking.

As the points of my piece are lifting and the center starts going down I know I have reached the limits of layering in the enamels.

Happy Enameling!

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

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

Hi Debra,

If you are needing a solution stronger than Klyr Fire try tragacanth. It is available on line and the best results I have had, is if I add water to the powder and let it sit over night to get a good creamy consistency. It does not take that much. And after firing, it turns to ash so brush it off before applying another coat of enameling.

If this is not enough to hold the cloison wires for your application I move to fusing the wires to the fine silver.

Thanks for the visit!
Patsy

Some enamelists use lily root powder for vertical surfaces. It can be purchased from Coral Shaffer at Enamelwork Supply in Seattle.
Barb P.

If you’re using fine silver cloisonne wire on fine silver backing you can also use Art Clay Silver’s Oil Paste or homemade lavender oil paste and fire in a kiln first. These are metal clay products that are designed to join fired metal clay to fired metal clay or any fine silver to any other fine silver metal.

Lora Hart

“thick metal = thin enamel, thin metal = thick enamel” This means if you are enameling say cloisonne, you can get pretty thick enamels on the metal plate of your choice, as long as you counter the same thickness. I have enameled to a mm in thickness on 20 ga metal= thin metal. But if you have 16 ga  metal and want to enamel on it, you can do so with one layer of enamel and no counter.

Here is cloisonne enameling and the                        

enamels are approximately 1mm in depth.

And here on the left is thick metals of  16 ga with                                    one coat of flux and one color of red enamel.

Hi Patsy,

Hope your new year is turning out well and I hope you are having fun in the studio.

I was wondering if you could tell me what that stuff was you use as a cushion when you set your enamel pieces.  You used it under the enameled element so the enamel would not break if the setting was hit with a hard object.  It was some sort of plastic cushion.  I hope I’m making sense.  I would really appreciate this tip.

thanks a lot Patsy!  Hope to see you again some time

-Tara Turner

Hey Tara,                                                        

Hope you also are busy enameling!

I do not mind at all,

The rubber backing is called Tuff Break and Fred Woell sells it. The last I ordered his number was 207-348-5267.  I like it for several reasons. Not only does the rubber add to protect the counter enamel while setting, it also gives the enamel piece a cushion during setting which help me not crack the piece during this process,  and it take care of that tinny sound of the enamel against the metal once the piece is complete.

Many enamelist use glues or a piece of plastic behind the enameled piece and I feel this is a more professional element of the whole jewel.

I will be back to Mendocino in July, Come join the class!

Patsy Croft

Cracking Enamels While Setting

Dear Patsy,

I found your site while doing a search on orchid.
I am in some sort of trouble with mounting an enamel piece (a pendant) to a setting. I do not know what to do.
So, this is the problem: I made my enamel piece, then I made a bezel to go around it; I soldered the bezel to a sheet and pierced out the back, but leaving a rim as I wanted to set the enamel from behind. I then saw out prongs in the bezel – most of the bezel will disappear – and then I set the piece in the setting and push the prongs down at the back of the enamelled piece. That’s where it goes wrong. I ruinded two pieces today.
Could you please help? I think that mounting enamels is really difficult.

Kind regards and thank you for reading,

Alicia

Hi Alicia,

I would be happy to help. And it should not be hard. But a photo would help me understand better how you are going about this. Can you upload as many photos as it takes for me to see. And if you would include a phone number I will call at your convenience and walk you through this.

Are you using fine silver for the bezel? Did you sand and polish the girdle = the outside edge of the enamel piece? How are you pushing over the bezel? I find it is best to have a bit of height to the enamel at the edge = a girdle just like setting a stone. If the enamel slopes down to meet the fine silver to a point and the fine silver is soft it is very easy to crack.

Happy Enameling, Patsy

Another thread suggests setting an enameled piece in a bezel for a more professional appearance. I am new to enameling, but am an experienced stone setting, so bezel setting is fine with me. However, two issues present a challenge. First, I am not used to setting a flat or near flat object. Second, I’ve cracked the enamel on several occasions when I’ve bezel set a disk. Any suggestions that you have to help me with these issues would be appreciated.

Jamie

If you makes a bezel-setting, make the “frame”  unconditionally from fine-silver and not thicker than 0,2 – 0,3 mm (0,01 –0,015 inch). The fine silver frame should only maximum 1 mm (0,04 inch) higher than the rim of the metal/enamel surface. File with a carborundum- or diamond file  the edging of the enameled workpiece in an angle of about 60-70 degree. Press the frame in several steps over the enamel.

I use 90 degree angle, but I think either can work.

All that has been said should help you and add this,  be sure you create a girdle on the edge of the enamel piece. On the girdle you want to see some counter enamel, the base metal and some surface enamel. Hope this makes since.

See  if you can see what I mean about a girdle. If the enamel comes down to a very thin layer at the edge of the fine silver or copper, which ever you are using, with the metal being so annealed it is very easy to crack. Here I have to sand down the top just a bit before setting. But my girdle is very thick. Also, the rubber stuff would help you. When you are setting it allows the enameled piece to go down when you are burnishing the bezel over it. Then as you release it raise back up. You can read about where to purchased it below.

Good luck!

I just took a look at your website and I think its an incredible idea for you! On the jewelry front, I have managed to make a very pretty (for my inexperience) and large pendant with a turtle, fish and starfish. For the past 2 weeks I have been creating a VERY large pelican pendant. I thought it came out o.k. but, every time I fire it now I see tiny air bubbles. I did use silver foil on copper and I must have had some air trapped in it. I’ll take some photos and send them in so you can give examples of what NOT to do.

Take care!!!                  

Wendy

Thanks Wendy,

Your work looks great! Larger is better, gives you room to gradate colors. Your enamels are nice and shinny, as well as the clarity of the transparents.

You mentioned the bubbles, after 20 years I just read that the tiny bubbles are from underfiring. It is nice when you are not sure, as there are so many, many things that go on in the Cloisonne, art of enameling, that some one before has it documented.

Millenet states in his book, “Enamelling on Metal” from 1927

“ A few words of advice may not be out of place here. We have already said, and we repeat with emphasis, that it is essential that the furnace should be at its maximum heat at the moment of firing: and every enameller should take this axiom to heart: a short firing in a brisk heat.”

With winter here and we lose a lot of heat opening and closing the door, checking or replacing. Just one opening my heat will drop several hundred degrees. These tiny bubbles can be in one layer, just the one that was underfired. I am not saying fire at your kilns max. Our kilns are very different then 85 years ago. You have to experiment and find what temperature works best for you. The fun of enameling! Remember the one that was too hot and the base color bubbled up around the design.
I have one of those in my trunk!

Thanks for sharing, Patsy

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!

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.

I received a piece of cloisonne this week broken and wanted to share the repair process.  The piece was dropped and the enamel had completely separated from the fine silver base. Here in the photo the broken piece is sitting on a new sheet of fine silver, that has one layer of flux fired on its front, and four layers of counter enamel fired on the back of the new base . I filled the backside of the enamel piece with a very thin coat of flux, hoping this would give it a solid bond to the base, when fired. There were some cavities on the back of the broken enamel piece from the separation of the base, here I added a bit more flux, hoping to keep the enamel from sinking or forming bubbles. Next, the piece was fired in a kiln at 1400 degrees. You can see in the photo the base silver is larger then the broken enamel piece. Once it was fired and the broken enamel piece fused to the base, I could clean the edges of the enamel piece that was discolored. It was too fragile to attempt this prior to attaching it to the base. I used a diamond ball bur to clean around the edges.

The holes in the enamel piece are where bubbles did form. I needed to remove these to prevent the piece from cracking in the future. A diamond ball bur was used again, to bur through the enamel and open the bubbles. The right hole is not burred out completely. I wanted you to see what to expect as you are drilling. This is a small pin hole which will open into the whole bubble as you proceed.  The left bubbles have been opened completely, which is necessary to allow the enamel to flow smoothly into the opening.

In the third photo you can see how smoothly the enamel flowed into the openings. Even though the enamel is lower than the cloison wires, which you would expect, I have a choice to fill with matching color, or sand down the high spots.

One very important point is to fire the enamel piece you have used a diamond bur on before adding new enamel. If you add enamels to the burred area, then fire, you will have shadows in the finished enamel piece. I have also seen burnish marks in the enamels after drilling out the bubble and have concluded it can from the diamonds being worn off the bur. In this case get a new diamond bur and go over the surface are to remove the burnish marks. I have used Arkansas stones as well for repairs.

All set and ready to go back to the owner!

Coral
Enamelwork Supply Co.
Settle, Wa

Coral,

Thanks for the note, and sharing your testing. I believe we have been overfiring as well!

Patsy

Thank You so Much,                                    
Mary

Hey Mary,

If you are making a dye for the hydraulic press, you should use brass, not copper. Coper is too soft. I like 18 ga. brass. I first cut out my design in the brass sheet. Then I use carpet tape to hold it to the plexiglas. After you place the brass on the plexiglas, then you cut the same pattern in the plexiglas. When I am forming the foundations of fine silver, for a cloisonne enameled pendent I use 20 ga and if I am making earrings I will use 22 ga.

Have a great day!

I hope this finds you well and having fun! I have a technical problem with my 22K+fine silver fused element from the Arrowmont workshop and hope you don’t mind my picking your brain! I’m sure your opinion is the best!

My problem:
This fused piece of gold and silver is slightly overfired but still usable-from the kilns at the workshop. There are no holes in it and the silver slightly climbed the gold wires but not so much as to obliterate cells.

I enameled it once and the Japanese enamel I used turned blotchy and ugly, so I removed all of the enamel with Etchall.

I re-enamelled it. Got some blotches but covered them with dark colors.

Upon final firing (of course) got an open pit or two…like burst bubbles.

Recoated, refired. The initial pits filled, got new ones.PITS…..but why mostly near the wires??

Recoated, refired! Same thing, old ones filled, got new ones. Some of the tiny pits seem to go all the way to the metal, some not. They are only occurring on the side to be ground…deeper enamel; not the “Russian” style side. The Russian style side was fine.

I am now removing all the enamel once again!!

I cannot figure this out since I only used fine silver and 24K gold wires. The pits occur at random spots and a bit more near wires. I’m wondering if the overfiring created some funky alloy even though my metals were pure??( I did get discoloration in the enamels too…an uncommon blotchy muddy nuisance that I didn’t expect)..Or, do I need to boil in baking soda after Etchall…is it possible there was some invisible residue from that?

Thanks in advance for any input or advice you may have!

Jan

Dear Jan,

Sounds like you have a couple of problems. One, when using the Etchall, an acid that eches out all the enamels, I will soak the piece for a day or so in water and use a stiff tooth brush to clean it well, before reenameling. There could be some acid trapped, and it would make sense in corners and next to the wire where there could be very small pits from the fusion process. This could help if it is the Etchall, but I have had the bubbles in bad enamels as well.

Usually you can tell they are bad before you fire the enamels. What you see is the enamel floating on the surface, after you have washed them. This is not to be mistaken for the fine as we call them, that we see when you initially wash the enamel. After you have washed off the fines and the water is clear some of the enamel will float = deterioration. This can cause bubbles in the enamels when firing, if it is really bad. If they are only slightly deteriorating you may see this after a few hours, when they have been sitting wet while you are working. This degree of deterioration will look cloudy in transparent enamels and never go away!

THROW AWAY ENAMELS THAT FLOAT!

The muddy, blotchy look in the bottom of your transparent enamel is the salts from the fine silver interacting with the enamels caused from high temp. In this fusion style of enameling I believe with the gold wrapped around the fine silver disc conducts the heat better. And for this style of enameling we need to lower our firing temps to 1400 degrees. I have over fired this last month as I have added more gold to the outside of the ring. This is the first time I have had the muddy, blotchy patches appear in the transparent enamels. And it takes place first in the warm colors that are senitive to over firing.

I have been happy though to be fusing my wires down, as I have been able to etch the cloudy enamels out and save the metal work.

Hope I have helped and Happy Enameling