Showing posts with label enameling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enameling. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2015
MORE ENAMELING
I did another enameling session this week and was very happy with the results. Here are two pieces I have listed in my Etsy shop.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
ENAMELING
My friend and I spent several afternoons last week enameling. This time it was a completely new experience, as we used a small Paragon kiln instead of the torch. What sparked our interest, you might ask? Have you ever seen the work of Angela Gerhard? Enough said!
While we didn't know what we were doing, we had an idea. We made plenty of mistakes, most of them fixable. There were two ways of drawing patterns in enamels, that we knew of. You can first counter-enamel the back of your piece, then enamel a base coat on the front. Brush Klyr-Fire to the front and sift on a contrasting color. Then using a small brush or pointed scribing tool, draw your design in the enamel. When the piece is dry, carefully place it on a trivet and firing rack, then load into the kiln, which has been waiting at 1500 deg. F.
Here's what we did last week. We counter-enameled the back by putting on a fairly thick coat. Then added a thinner base coat to the front and fired again. Instead of using Klyr-Fire and a coat of enamel powder, we mixed a small portion of white liquid enamel with distilled water until it was a thin yogurt consistency. We brushed this mixture over the top of the piece, sifted a coat of enamel on top, and immediately started the drawing process. A very tricky business! You need to have a plan and work fast. If you make a mistake, it can be fixed by using some of the enamel mixture and sifted enamel ... sometimes. But most of the time it didn't work and you had to clean the piece and start over.
The enamels we used are from Thompson Enamel. The white liquid enamel was BC-1070.
Our worst mistake was on the first day. After we counter enameled the back of the piece, we didn't like it. So we added more enamel to try cover it. Remember, we had already given the back a heavier coat. What happened next was that most of the pieces cracked and the enamel fell off the back. Duh. The next day we were able to save those pieces by chipping off the excess enamel, adding a thin coat and quickly adding a coat to the top. It was a matter of surface tension.
I can't count the number of times we dropped the piece we were working on or it fell sideways off the trivet. The third day was an improvement. We had several nice pieces. I'll share a few here. I think what kept us going into the third day was my friend's piece. It had just been removed from the kiln and was gorgeous! The black dots are very small black glass beads!
Here are her earrings from the third day:
I had my successes too. I enameled a number of hearts and a few rectangular pieces.
So much to learn, but we felt we were successful in our first attempt. I want to try scribing zentangle patterns next.
While we didn't know what we were doing, we had an idea. We made plenty of mistakes, most of them fixable. There were two ways of drawing patterns in enamels, that we knew of. You can first counter-enamel the back of your piece, then enamel a base coat on the front. Brush Klyr-Fire to the front and sift on a contrasting color. Then using a small brush or pointed scribing tool, draw your design in the enamel. When the piece is dry, carefully place it on a trivet and firing rack, then load into the kiln, which has been waiting at 1500 deg. F.
Here's what we did last week. We counter-enameled the back by putting on a fairly thick coat. Then added a thinner base coat to the front and fired again. Instead of using Klyr-Fire and a coat of enamel powder, we mixed a small portion of white liquid enamel with distilled water until it was a thin yogurt consistency. We brushed this mixture over the top of the piece, sifted a coat of enamel on top, and immediately started the drawing process. A very tricky business! You need to have a plan and work fast. If you make a mistake, it can be fixed by using some of the enamel mixture and sifted enamel ... sometimes. But most of the time it didn't work and you had to clean the piece and start over.
The enamels we used are from Thompson Enamel. The white liquid enamel was BC-1070.
Our worst mistake was on the first day. After we counter enameled the back of the piece, we didn't like it. So we added more enamel to try cover it. Remember, we had already given the back a heavier coat. What happened next was that most of the pieces cracked and the enamel fell off the back. Duh. The next day we were able to save those pieces by chipping off the excess enamel, adding a thin coat and quickly adding a coat to the top. It was a matter of surface tension.
I can't count the number of times we dropped the piece we were working on or it fell sideways off the trivet. The third day was an improvement. We had several nice pieces. I'll share a few here. I think what kept us going into the third day was my friend's piece. It had just been removed from the kiln and was gorgeous! The black dots are very small black glass beads!
Here are her earrings from the third day:
I had my successes too. I enameled a number of hearts and a few rectangular pieces.
So much to learn, but we felt we were successful in our first attempt. I want to try scribing zentangle patterns next.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
New Enameled Beads
There's something so rewarding about torch firing copper beads. It's immediate. You have a finished bead in minutes. You can refire to correct a flaw. They are so funky and fun to make! Here are photos of four sets of enameled beads in my Etsy shop.
Robin's Egg Blue
Pumpkin Orange
Lichen Green
French Blue
Robin's Egg Blue
Pumpkin Orange
Lichen Green
French Blue
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Funky and Fun Enameled Copper Beads
Over the past week I've been making funky beads out of copper wire, tubing and sheet. I wanted to practice enameling using my lampwork bead torch. And it works great ... once I learned to use a cooler bushy flame so the copper wire didn't melt! Here's a photo of just a few of the beads I started with.
And here are a few strands of finished enameled beads. They are great components for someone's jewelry projects. Listing them in my Etsy shop, and keeping my fingers crossed ....
And here are a few strands of finished enameled beads. They are great components for someone's jewelry projects. Listing them in my Etsy shop, and keeping my fingers crossed ....
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Enameled Hearts
It's been a busy month so far ... so many deadlines to meet. But I took some "my" time recently to enamel a few pieces. These hearts were cut from copper sheet and then domed. I tried a new method of enameling for the first time ... so exciting. Instead of using a trivet to set the piece on to torch fire, I hung the piece on a steel mandrel, got it hot in the flame, then dipped it into enamel. This was done until the piece had three coats of enamel on it and then pulled off into a bed of vermiculite. Here's a short video with Barbara Lewis demonstrating how she enamels a metal bead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Zr-6D9FnY
These are photos of the pieces I recently listed on Etsy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Zr-6D9FnY
These are photos of the pieces I recently listed on Etsy.
Friday, April 26, 2013
"Shimmer" Treasury
My fused glass plate with enameled leaf design is again featured in an Etsy treasury.
'Shimmer ' by daeschek
Treasury tool supported by the dog house
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
"Iridescence" Treasury
Here's a beautiful treasury ... I love the colors. My fused glass plate is included.
'Iridescence' by lynnm28
Treasury tool supported by the dog house
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)