ENAMEL

Copper discs, ready for dapping.

Domed and cleaned and ready to go!

A copper disc, covered with enamel being torched from below.

The enamel beginning to melt, looks like melting sugar.

The clear enamel, fully fused on the copper.

Some of my first tries.

Another shot of my first attempts.

Wow, it's almost been a week since I last posted.  I'll try not to do that again or you all might not come back!  I haven't been feeling very creative lately and I haven't felt like I had much to say.  When I feel like that, I've found that the best thing to get me going again is to try something new.  I've been itching to try enameling for a long time now.   I'd really like to get good enough at it to teach a basic class, plus I just love the look of enameled metal.  I got a couple of books and got out the enamels that I bought a year ago (I know, my bad!) and I set to work.  I have to say, this is the most fun I've had working in quite a while.  I did a basic, easy torch method because I thought might be good as most people can afford to buy a torch but maybe not a kiln.  I used Thompson enamels and copper.  I only had transparent enamels and I think I would prefer opaque ones for the copper, but it was ok for a first try.  I want to try it for a bit with copper and then try with fine silver when I feel a bit more comfortable.  Since the transparent colors were, um, transparent, I couldn't really get deep complex colors with them with out building up the colors in many layers.  I also tried a make-shift raku treatment using some dead leaves in a tin can, putting the hot, enameled piece in the can and clamping the lid down until it cooled off.  This gave me my favorite results.  

I think I might love doing this!  It will go along perfectly with the metal work that I'm already doing and it will be a great new class to teach at Bead Haven and here in my studio.  And as for perking up my creative juices, I'm already thinking of what to do next with it.  So, the moral of the story is, if you have something sitting around at home that you've wanted to try, but just haven't gotten to, get it out and give it a try this weekend!