Finally - enamel done right!

The best piece yet! Using transluscent enamels. I made the kimono using junk clay - scrap and broken unfired pieces that I reconsituted and then put in a mold that I made from a rubber stamp.



Quick, easy, fun.....perfect for a quick class!

enameling on silver and copper

Well.....not everything in life is a huge success. Her lips came out black, not red. The pupils of her eyes slid. But I like what it did for the hair problem. Now to see if I can "fix" the errors!

So, on the copper, we painted scalex where we didn't put enamels. Since this was our first attempt - I have way more scalex than enamel.


and we didn't bother to counterenamel any of this. But what a glorious surprise when we took the copper out of the kiln. Don't know if you can see, but the scalex peeled rigtht off and left the most wonderful pink/peach pearlized surface you can imagine - absolutely gorgeous!

Maybe this one shows it better:

I learned that I like transluscent enamels on pieces - not real fond of opaque, but can see their uses as well.

Rhonda took the time to completely enamel an embossed, diecut piece of copper and it turned out wonderful!

So tomorrow, I'll share more successes and failures. I am now completely convinced that you can read all the books you want, take all the classes you want, re-read all your notes....and the best way to learn something is still to just do it!

I'm happy to report that a fun time was had by all! And I think we all learned something "new" while spending a day playing in our jammies!!!

A metal clay pajama party?

Yesterday, we had our Art Clay Society meeting in Canon City and it was "pajama day". Well - I don't know about you, but I do some of my best work in my jammies!



And yes.....not everyone wore them - but we sure had fun!!!



we were experimenting with some lead-based enamels that are probably from the 70s. So we all brought "junk" silver - pieces that had flaws or flops in them. I "inherited" these enamels and had no clue if they would even work or not

Sherry Stone was our hostess in her lovely store: Paper Silver Stone and let me tell you, she pulled out the stops with "breakfast in bed" all day long!!!

fresh fruit, cheeese and crackers, loads of carbs and sugar to keep us pumped up all day long! Now usually, our meetings are just a few hours....but today was a total free play day. OK, can you imagine? FREE enamels???

so it was an endless supply of food and enamels! What more could a girl want???


Here's my first piece ready for the kiln. I'll post the results tomorrow. On the original silver, her hair hadn't been stamped deep enough and I wanted to "fix" that problem.

Because these enamels are from the 70s, and lead based, everyone wore face masks. We experimented a lot on copper so that we didn't really care if we ruined our pieces or not. And with these older enamels, you just never know if the color will hold true....or if it will all come out brown.

So, stay tuned for our results. But I can report here - we had a blast!!!