More Torch Enameling

Hope the holidays were wonderful for you. The neighbor children are still home on their Christmas vacation, so I guess it's not over yet. The year started out with the belt on my vacuum breaking. I could not for the life of me get it on that little wheel, so I drove to Oreck in Burbank where a young man happily and quickly fixed the problem. Then when I got home the freezer's ice cube dispenser would not work. I'll get the book out today and if it doesn't have a suggestion, I'll have to learn to open the freezer door for ice!

Other than those two minor problems, our torch enameling is producing great results. I forgot to take photos of my friend's latest pieces, but maybe can do that in a day or so. The process takes more time than it should since I have only one trivet. It is used when there is enamel on both sides ... And waiting for the piece to cool while the next piece anxiously awaits its turn has been frustrating. But that problem will be solved today or tomorrow with more trivets. A new book I have shows firing the small pieces on a mandrel instead of a trivet, but I have not tried that yet. Any torch enamelers out there? I'd love to hear from you! Sometimes balancing an irregular shape on the three points of the trivet is challenging and I've lost several coats of enamel powder this week.

Here are a few of my latest pieces. I love the red heart pendants! They are 1" x 1-1/4", and I'll be adding them to my Etsy glass shop soon for Valentine's Day. The green gingko leaves were a challenge, but they finally turned out well. The shapes had problems on the trivet! I like the gingko leaves on the left -- the right ones look more like butterflies, so I'll have to alter my pattern (or toss it). The round pieces on the left side have enamel sifted through a mesh. That added an interesting design element and should be great with other colors. Hope to do more today ... as well as work on some dichroic pendants ... thin out my rhubarb patch as the leaves are resting on my lawn ... cut back my grape vines ... dig a hole and plant the new citrus tree I got for Christmas ... There are not enough hours in the day!