Enameling is Great!

Okay, for some reason my pictures are uploading in order opposite of how they need to. Hummm.... So I guess we'll start at the end and work our way back! Valerie and I and our constant quest for artsy knowledge took an Intro. to Enameling class at Art Worx in Marietta last month. Every Wednesday we'd make the haul up to this amazing jewelers studio for class. Our instructor was super great and we learned alot about the basics. So of course now we have to take this artsy knowledge and run with it! On election day while the kids were home from school I headed over to Valerie's amazing studio where the enameling kiln awaited us. (Valerie has already bought the kiln of course ;)) Here's my crop for the day: A nest of course, a bird or course, some blue doughnuts, white discs, blue discs, red discs and a stamped disc that says "I am an artist", is what I have so far. Yesterday I wore my nest and earring set and my Mom said she liked it. And those of you who know Mom understand that this is a compliment of great importance! She is always painfully honest! I really liked making these jewels and plan to make a line of them for the Naked Art Gallery in B'ham. Vero has asked if I wanted to sign on as a jewelry artist as well as painter since I now have the nest earrings from a couple of post ago. Heck yeah I say!

This little birdie is awaiting to be placed in the kiln. Enameling is basically fine glass powder placed on top of a copper surface, which is then heated in a kiln of 1400' degrees. This temperature would just about melt anything I think, but definitely melts the glass powder. My favorite colors of the day were Robin's egg blue, yellow and white. I think too that even though it is jewelry, it is important for my work to have some consistency across the board. And those colors will help translate my paintings into miniature pieces of jewelry. I will be exploring more of the "painting" type technique I used to make the eggs in the nest to make some of my birds, flowers and branches which always appear in my paintings.

This is actually the first step: See how pixie dust looking the glass is? It is sifted onto the copper piece, which is then placed on the stilt like above and then placed in the kiln for 1 min. 30 sec. not long at all! Be looking for more of this style jewels from me soon!