ASOM day to learn to enameling

One of my personal goals this year was to take more classes and workshops, to try new things and learn from those who really know what they're doing.

This weekend the Altered States of Mind group met with my friend Joanna of the Bellevue Beadery to learn how to enamel on copper. Joanna is so giving with her knowledge, she spent 6 hours showing us the ropes and answering all of our questions. While at the Thompson Enameling studio we had access to the equipment, the colors, the kilns, and a great selection of copper pieces.

This was a my favorite design of the day... a matte white enameled oval with cobalt blue stenciled on top.

I learned enamel can be fickle..my first piece of the day was the circle (below). It started out as mocha brown but when I fired it the second time to add the orange the brown turned a shade of grey. The heart was also fired twice, once to bake the blue background and then glass stringers to create the colored lines.
We learned about transparent enamels (on the left) and my personal favorite- opaque enamels (right).
All of Thompson's enamels are lead-free so I am completely comfortable turning these pieces into jewelry.

There area number of safety lessons to learn since you are dealing with glass powders and a 1475 degree kiln, but the whole process of choosing the copper, picking the colors, and varieties of enamel is very rewarding.

Angie