Blog 8
Arrived at Higham hall , this is in Cumbria near Basinthwaite Lake , it’s a fab place, it lovely old hall with residential accommodation and onsite classes, while I was there other courses were water colours and yoga and walking, I as you all know was doing enameling , there was 10 of us on the course, enamellers from all over the place Cecilia came the furthest , she was from Sweden She is a jeweler who works with silver and enamel. The first day we get together and discuss what we are hoping to achieve over the four and a half days . Dorothy our tutor who is a master enameller and has wrote books on enameling, very inspiring. Finishing at 9.30 pm and preparing work ready for the Thursday we head to the watering hole for a well-deserved Gin and Tonic .
Well not long now until i go to Higham Hall the final part of my Bursary , this is a residential course in cumbria where i will be working alongside other enamelists for all over the world. I am so excited.
I have started sketching some pieces that i am taking along to my jeweller tomorrow to see if he can get them made for me before i go, I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity i have learned so much thanks AN
Blog 6:
On way to Edinburgh , think I should just move here been coming back and forward so many times, but I am enjoying it. I was not sure what Dorothy had in mind this time, I took a piece of work with me to do just in case. The work i took was a repair for the jeweller I do work for, I was not sure if I should hot enamel or cold enamel, pleased I waited, I thought remove and hot enamel, but after a lengthy discussion and analysing and how to analyse we have decided cold enamel is the way to do it. As hot would possible move the original enamels that are in as it is a very old piece of jewellery.
We decided to try wet process enamel , rather than mix the dry powder it is already mixed, quite a different way of working, not being an artist, artist!! I found this process rather difficult but can see the potential of it and I am going to try again to do it, I think for higham hall I will design some work I can do in this medium, I have ordered a sample set from WG Ball so I can practice.
I did the process on copper and scraped into the underglaze to expose the copper to give a different effect. You still have to clan the work after doing that for the fire scale, then put a clear flux over it .
Was a fab day not only did I look at the technique but Dorothy showed me the work she was doing on maps and her tip through India, it was amazing, can’t wait to see it finished, we discussed decals, and thermos printing, and other methods, using water colours , well special watercolour enamels , my mind was a mess when I left for the train, but so fired up to start my next piece of work. Roll on Higham Hall . will have to post the other photos on next blog can’t get them downloaded !!
Well been back to Edinburgh to do a one to one with Dorothy Cockerell , today we did plaque de jour , I ended up using some pre cast shapes for the task as I mentioned in my last blog the silver casting I did wasn’t very successful . The idea of the plaque de jour is that the enamel when fired will look like stained glass, best used on something that will hang and let light transmit through it. I have done a pair of ear rings. they are not totally finished yet they still have to be polished and ear hooks attached.
This particular technique is very frustrating for a beginner, every time I put the enamel in I dry it too quick and it falls out !! still I persist. And by lunchtime I have the first two firings done and I can see it develop, still a few holes and not joined at the edge on the large hole but I feel I a getting there. After lunch and two more firings I am happy ll the holes have filled and gone shiny, the hardest part it keeping the enamel wet to form a meniscus film, when I do the residential at higham hall this is defiantly one of the techniques I am going to do.
Next session with Dorothy July 20th so I need to get practicing before then
The saga of the silver casting for my enamelling on 6th June, well all not well I have made a right cods ear of the dam thing, all you silversmiths and enamellers out there who do your own silver work to enamel I am in awe of you all it is so difficult. Still this is what its all about the learning process, well mine has not gone well so I have recast my sliver into some flat disks so I can work on them on the 6th . next blog will be after the 6th , soo excited .
