Enamel Components

I've been working on some simple enamel components for earrings and necklaces. I want the focus of these pieces to be the color, hence the super-simple designs. I did a blog post a week or 2 ago about making copper circles for this enameling session. Now I'll show you how some of them look with COLOR.

Each pair you see here will be a pair of earrings. The small circles are the ones I made in the above referenced blog post. They were domed very slightly. I used some dome up, some dome down. Both orientations seemed to work fine. The long teardrops are shapes that I purchased. All of the pieces are counter enameled with black on the back. This provides stability to the enamel.

I have another earring series to complete. These will be double dangles -- one circle hanging below another. I'm planning some very fun color combinations for those!

Another shape that I purchase as-is are these cute flowers. These will be put on a brass jump ring and hang from antiqued brass chain. This will help me keep the price point low ($24). I have some customers who have purchased several as gifts because of this attractive price.

I also offer these necklaces with hearts, which are on order. I hop they are in Monday's mail so I can get a bunch done before the Bad Girls of the North show next weekend! 

Experimenting with Enamels

After learning how to enamel using a torch just about a year ago, I've done mostly conventional things with the enamels. I started another conventional enameling session a few days ago and quickly got bored. Time for experiments!

This is how it started. I love this long shape, but it's tricky because it doesn't fit well on the trivets that are required to hold the pieces in place. As a result, I had to do a third coat and that's when the black spots appeared. They give the earrings a rustic look, but that was not my original intent.

 
Next up were these circles that I cut using two different sized circle cutters. Nice, but not so exciting. Love the colors I selected though! I still have the tiny circles that were cut from the center and I'm trying to decide what to do with them. 

On these next pieces, I enameled with a solid color and then sprinkled on a contrasting color.

I also experimented with counter enamels. I discovered that black works best for me, as it does not discolor when firing the top color. The flame is applied from below and most lighter colors will show some sort of effect from that. While black works, it's also a bit boring, so I did this next on the backs of a few pieces. I brushed Klyr-Fire (holding agent) on a tiny rubber stamp, stamped it on the copper, dusted it with black enamel, then covered the entire piece with clear. Then I fired it. I think a second firing with another coat of clear would have been a good idea, but I did not do that. Next time.

The last experiment was with two shades of brown enamel and some seed beads. A small Post-It note helped me get a clean line between the two colors (3 separate firings). The seed beads were placed during the third firing and I wasn't sure that they were secure enough. So, I followed with a coat of clear, sprinkled over the entire surface, included the beads. I really like the effect. Or maybe I like that they remind me of Hostess cupcakes!

Volcano Arts :: Enamels

I just returned from a short stay/class at Volcano Arts in California.  It was sort of a last minute trip and I wasn't sure what I would work on this time.  I thought I wanted to make a sterling silver ring with something decorative (not sure what) riveted to the top.  Christine convinced me to try my hand at enameling a small copper cut-out to rivet to the ring-to-be.

Well, the ring project never got off the ground!  It quickly turned in to a pendant, which I know I will wear more that the ring anyway.  The copper flower was just too big for a ring, at least for me.  I used heavy gauge sterling silver sheet for the base of the pendant and the 2 pieces of enameled copper are riveted to it with a handmade copper rivet.

I love it!   I had big plans to do something fancier with the bail, but I forgot to anneal the silver before adding the enameled pieces, so I was limited as to how much manipulation the silver would endure.  The best laid plans ...  There's always more to learn when working with metals.

At this point, I was in love with the idea of enamels and proceeded to spend the rest of my class time making more enameled components.  Anyone who loves color, and has a healthy respect for heat and fire would be right there with me.

Lest you think this is just about sprinkling on some enamel powder to get this magic to happen, there are a series of steps that must be completed before the Fun With Color begins.  This series of components all required the following:

• cut, saw or punch out a shape
• mark the center
• dome
• drill the center hole that you marked earlier
• clean with fine grit sand paper and pumice

I like the idea of layers of color for use in a piece of finished jewelry.  I had so much fun choosing the color combinations.  Of course, Christine has every possible color, so much time was spent ogling tempting color charts.

Aren't they cute?  I'm anxious to get started incorporating these into some pendants!