An exciting day course exploring the skills and techniques of kiln enamelling, learning to fuse finely powdered coloured enamels onto the surface of copper. This is known as vitreous enamelling.
These techniques were first used by the ancient Chinese, Greeks, Celts and Egyptians to decorate metal and add colour to metal jewellery.
If you love working with colour you will enjoy enameling; the combinations are limitless and the results swift and exciting as they emerge from the kiln. We will experiment with a range of simple decorative techniques to create your very own one-off pieces to make into unique jewellery to wear home!
We limit the numbers attending this course to a total of 4 people to allow for 1:1 attention.
On this day course you will learn to:
- Prepare copper for enamelling
- Make several sample pieces using a range of techniques
- Explore the use of opaque and transparent enamels
- Use a variety of decorative inclusions (e.g. frit, glass threads, millefiore and silver leaf)
- Cover health and safety and the kiln firing process
- Explore colour, and surface designs with stencils, printing and drawing
- Design and complete 3 final pieces to finish and mount on jewellery findings by the end of the day
- A supply of silver-plated jewellery findings will be available on which to mount your creations. Information will be provided on suppliers of enamelling equipment and jewellery findings when you decide you want to do more!
Refreshments: We will provide tea, coffee and biscuits at the studio throughout the day.
Lunch: There are many lovely cafe's in the locality to frequent during the lunch break, or alternatively, you may bring a packed lunch with you.
Please note: this course takes place in a working glass studio and not a classroom setting, so participants need to be able and prepared to stand to prepare enamelled pieces, and to work standing at benches. (Stools are available in between times). If you have any questions regarding mobility, please make contact via the "contact" page. Thank you.
