I haven't posted about many enamel projects lately, as you may have noticed. I'm still at my enameling class every week -- I love my teacher and classmates -- but I've been in an experimental phase. I've been playing around with different enameling techniques and not all of my pieces have turned out so well.
I attempted to make a cuff bracelet so I could enamel something that isn't flat. Boy was that a mess! The enamel just wouldn't stay in place, even with the addition of Klyr-Fire (a clear, but sticky liquid used to keep enamel and cloissoinne wire in place). So I ditched the bracelet.
Now that I'm learning to make fused glass pieces, I next tried to create an enamel pendant that looked as if it were made of fused glass. I used large glass blobs that you can add to enamel to create texture and piled them on. At first, the piece turned out nicely, but I went overboard in adding the glass fragments... and I had another mess.
I then finally got something right! My teacher suggested that I add enamel to one of my wire wrapped jewellery designs. I didn't even realize you could do this; I figured the enamel would fall through the cracks since most of my designs are "spiraled." But I made one of my spiral daisies, added some blue enamel to the center... and what do you know? The glass stayed in place. Even better, I loved how it looked when I fired my piece.
I made several more daisies and turned them into a new version of my wire wrapped daisy anklet. I used copper because you can only enamel fine silver -- which is much more expensive. I originally planned to use a different color enamel in each flower center, but decided to stick with just one color instead: Prussian Blue, which is a deep, rich transparent enamel.
You might notice that the copper has a pinkish hue. This is what happens to the metal after it's fired and then cleaned in pickle solution. I wanted my jumprings and chain to match, so I also fired and pickled them.
I'm very pleased with the final result -- and I learned a great way to combine enamel and wire wrapping. This is relatively easy to do, too. I'm going to try some other color enamels with the copper. I think a pink would look pretty, especially since the copper turns that pinkish shade in the process.
Please check out the rest of my work at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.
