Yesterday, thanks to my friend Evelyn Markasky who makes gorgeous enameled jewelry, I attempted enameling on copper for the first time. If it wasn’t for Evelyn, I would still be searching for the right colors and supplies and I wouldn’t have got to know this amazing medium!
Robin’s egg blue and chartreuse on copper.
Chartreuse on copper.
I have to warn you though, this stuff is highly addictive! My first results are not that impressive, but it was exciting and magical to see the tiny glass particles fuse and bond with the metal.
Chartreuse & cobalt blue on copper.
Attempt to do scraffito. It didn’t work because I forgot to first heat the piece from underneath and the enamel powder was blown away.
I don’t have a kiln so everything was done with my torch. I sifted the enamels on clean, sanded pieces of copper and fired them, I layered many colors to see how they blend, I counterenameled with transparent colors, tried scraffito and allowed myself to make many mistakes and start all over again.
Back side, counterenameled with chartreuse.
The main issue that I had was these black spots that sometimes appeared on the back side because the enamel would stick on the screen as I was firing the front side. Was I hitting it too hard with the torch? Should I find another way to support the piece without touching the screen? I’m not really sure…
Saturday’s samples.
Today’s samples.
The results are unpredictable or at least they seem that they are to a beginner like me and I love the element of surprise. There are so many enameling techniques that I want to try, I only hope I can find the time to practice more.
Thanks for reading!
