Experimental Saturday - Enameling on Copper Metal Clay

If you know my work or read my posts, you know I love metal...especially copper...and enameling!  You also know I like to try new things.  A few months ago, after really, really, really wanting to give metal clay a go, I played a bit and then dove in head first and bought a kiln. At the time, I wanted to add an enameling collar to the kiln so that I could expand my repertoire even more with cloissonne and other kiln-enameling techniques, but it just wasn't in my budget then.

Fast forward...my birthday is in a couple weeks (Happy Birthday to me!!) and hubby asked me what I wanted...can you guess what I answered?  Exactly - that enameling collar!  Sadly, I don't have it yet...should be here by my birthday though and just be warned that I will be inundating you with more progress because I have been researching a lot of different enameling techniques.

But you know I am impatient, right?  I want to enamel metal clay now!  My only option right now is my beloved immersion method torch-firing, a la the lovely and talented Barbara Lewis.  Maybe that would be do-able.  I queried over on the Facebook Inspired Enameling group and got some advice.  Barbara shared that she had tried it on a finished bronze clay piece that a student brought to class and was unsuccessful. Hmm...I decided to see for myself!

Here are a few of my 1st copper clay babies...one must sacrifice for the greater good, right?

I won't bore you with the details.  Here are the after photos...

It started doing this as soon as I took it out of the flame.  The smaller one I tried a 2nd time with the same results.

This sad one lasted a  little bit longer :(

Just look at those gorgeous color combos...in flakes on the paper!  I do have to admit that they are still sort of cool...perhaps salvageable!

So, in hindsight, I think one of the biggest factors in why this was an epic fail was that metal clay is more porous than actual metal sheet.  I also fired these pieces in the most straight-ahead program included in the clay's instruction packet.  I now know that there is a special firing program for enameling pieces in the kiln, so it would follow that maybe that would also apply to torch-firing them...maybe!

As for kiln enameling on metal clay...there are artists out there making gorgeous art.  I thought I would share a few with you...

Robbin Bowler is an artist/designer who creates sweet birds and other whimsical jewelry designs from CopperClay that has been enameled in a kiln.  Love these!

Pam East is a prolific artist who has written several books and tutorials  on enameling metal clay.

Gorgeous copper clay and enamel pendant.

Hadar Jacobson is well known in the metal clay world, not only as an artist, designer, and author, but the inventor of  Hadar's Clay.

Last on today's list, but definitely one of my favorites and one of the artists whose work really inspired me to want to work in metal clay, is Wanaree Tanner.  She breaks down creating this gorgeous piece, as well as many others, step-by-step on her blog.

Obviously not copper, but, HELLO? Gorgeous!

So, get ready for more metal clay and enamel from me...not going to let my little failures get me down! Now, off to bed with me since I will be getting out bright and early to drive over to BeadFest to do some shopping and visit with some of my team members here and other online friends...maybe you?!

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love.

A Change Is As Good...

My much discussed bead show is a little over a week away now and apart from a small pile of finishing my inventory is almost complete and it's just as well because frankly, I've had enough. I'm tired...bone weary tired with painful hands and probably worse - I'm beginning to get bored.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love what I do or appreciate the opportunity to meet customers face to face, but I usually only make small numbers of any item and I just don't do well with repetitive tasks - never have and never will. But it's easy enough to remedy and this week I've taken a few hours out just to do something a bit different and on a smaller, more joint friendly level.

A few weeks ago I started paying around with some ideas for combining enamel with Bronze Clay and made these flower pendants...

I've been wanting to progress with this idea some more and decided to try the process out with frit - the lovely crushed glass mixes that lampworkers use to decorate their beads. I have tried this once before and the results were a bit muddy so this time I set the frit on the base of white enamel and got a much clearer and brighter result...

I was really pleased with the effects I got here but wanted to do something other than flowers. The pieces need to have enough depth for the frit to pool in and this took me back to something else I've been wanting to develop more - these lovely shell sections.

And I have to say I'm really quite pleased with the results... the shell imprints create a kind of natural Cloisonne framework and I love the vibrancy of the colours within that.

 
This is definitely something I will be taking further and will be on the look out for interesting objects to create frames from - do let me know if you have any ideas.

So while I have to grit my teeth and return to completing my repetitive show tasks for a few more days, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and don't overdo it on the eggs.

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess