Landscape Enamels

This is not just an enameling journey at the moment, I've very recently set up my new  www.picklepotjewellery.com website and that's been a journey so far too. 

Currently I'm trawling through loads of information on Policies, Terms of Use Policies, Privacy Policies, policies policies policies.  So much legal jargon to wade through, its doing my head in. 

More interesting is that I'm also currently working on 4 small enamel landscape pieces for framing.  

I like to concentrate on producing one type of piece at a time so I tend to do multiples of my designs for the chosen type together, rather than spread them out over time, I find this approach really helps me get into the technique that I'm using. 

I'm creating these landscapes using a base of sifted enamels and S.64 enamel paints from Enamel Workshop, I like these painting enamels a lot there's a great colour range and they are lovely to mix and apply. I've tried them with both an oil based medium and a water based medium and for me the oil base works best.  I use lavender oil, bonus, the perfume from it fills my studio with calming vibes.

Once the paints are dry they need to be smoked to burn off the oil before firing, I use my torch for this, slowly applying and removing the heat to allow the smoke to form and dissipate until there is no more smoke. In fact I use my torch for most of the creation of these pieces, especially the small ones,  I'm too impatient to wait for the kiln to come to temperature for the many firings they need, but they do get a final fire polish in the kiln. 

This one is 8.5 x 7 cms, it's probably over maximum size for torch firing but so far so good.  This piece is finished and ready for framing, 3 more pieces to go. 

 

The process of creating these isn't too complicated, just time consuming.  I do them in a similar manner as I would any painting, I plan the design and rough it out, then lay down a basic colour layer, then proceed to work on the details.

For enamels, the copper blank is cut to size, the edges are filed, the back of the blank is given a couple of coats of counter enamel, to prevent it from distorting, then often but not always I apply a coat of white enamel to the front.  

I draw a basic design on the front of the piece and fill that in with sifted enamels in colours that will suit my design, carefully brushing off any escaped grains or overlays.  This forms the base colour layer which may take a few siftings and firings to keep the colour areas distinct, once this has had it's last firing its time to add the details, ie: painting time. 

I have a mix of some beautiful super fine sable brushes and trimmed cheap brushes to use for this. 

There can be several painting layers applied with short firings in between. It's very tempting to go for all the intricate little details from the outset but I've found it best to build up these painted layers from less detailed to the final more detailed layer, you can easily loose the detail if the piece is fired too often, too hot or too long, so less is more in this case, in this way I gradually build up the detail of the piece as it slowly reveals itself.

   

The end result isn't always recognisable as the original design that I had in my mind when I drew the outline but I don't concern myself too much with that,  the piece has evolved as the layers are applied and after it's final fire polish in the kiln it's complete and ready to be framed.

You can see more of these small landscapes in my homewares collection on my website at  picklepotjewellery.com