Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Tales From Enameling Class: Back To School!


The new semester of enameling began today! This time around, we have 11 people. That may not sound like a lot, but it's a large crowd for enameling. The group includes four newbies. On one hand, I'm pleased that so many people are interested in this art. But the spoiled only child in me is like, "Damn it, I don't want to have to wait in line for the kiln!"

It always takes a while to get going when a new semester kicks off, but I made a lot of progress on my cat-themed Christmas ornaments. I brought in four ornaments, one of each design, and managed to apply a white base coat to all. I then got about 75 percent done on my "cat wearing a Santa hat" piece:

The Santa cat will be getting an extra coat of enamel, plus black tabby stripes. As for the others, the angel cat will have a wreath painted onto the white robe, the gingerbread cat will have a colorful button design and I'll probably put some kind of holiday decor on the cat in the stocking. I was originally going to write, "Meowy Christmas" on the angel's robe, but I'm not sure if there's enough room. I don't want to have a lot of empty white space, though, so I think the wreath will look nice -- and will be appropriately festive.

It's difficult to tell in these photos, but I added some additional white enamel to the Santa hat brim and pompom. This way, they'll have that "fluffy" look that the furry white area has on real Santa hats. I'm probably going to leave the cat faces blank; I like the idea of the ornaments being a little abstract. Besides, there are already a lot of colors and textures and I don't want the ornaments to look too cluttered.

It felt so good to be back in the classroom! These ornaments are taking longer to do than I anticipated so I'll be staying late to get in some studio time. What's also exciting is that the Y is holding a craft fair at the end of November. It's going to be a three-day-long event and I'm planning to sign up. I definitely intend to sell these pieces there.

Meantime, check out the rest of my handmade wire wrapped and enamel jewellery at Naomi's Designs and MayaGirl Creations.

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