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Enameling Retreat
Explore personal approaches to working with enamel, developing your technical and design skills in independent ways. A variety of techniques will be demonstrated and students can focus on those that interest them most. Use of opaque, transparent and opalescent color, foils, painting and drawing techniques, cloisonné, liquid enamels, torch firing and experimental explorations will be discussed as well as soldering before and after enameling. Both beginning and advanced students will be challenged to work at their own level of experience.
Meet the instructor
Linda is a jewelry and enameling professor at East Carolina University and founder/ director of their ECU Tuscany study abroad program, where she currently lives and teaches. She has an extensive international exhibition record, is the author of The Art of Enameling, and frequently teaches workshops on enameling in this country and abroad. Linda is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for research from East Carolina University, the Board of Governors Award for teaching excellence and the Life -Time Achievement Award from The Enamelist Society. Her work is in public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Art and Design in NYC, Yale University Art Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and the Crocker Art Museum.
Materials & Tools
There is a $30 materials fee for this workshop that is payable upon registration. The fee for this workshop includes shared use of all of Metalwerx's enameling supplies including liquid and powder enamels, watercolors, and foundational enameling materials.
For those who would like to purchase a sample kit of Japanese lead bearing enamels, the cost will be $55.00. The kit will include 24 different Ninomya transparent enamel samples. Students are welcome to bring their own enamels and enameling supplies if they have them and it is not necessary to purchase this kit!
The instructor will have cloisonné wire, small paintbrushes, diamond sanding sticks and silver foil for those who wish to purchase them – it is not necessary to purchase these materials for the workshop, but they will be available for those who need them. Cost for these materials she brings can be paid directly to her.
Because the nature of this “enamel retreat” is to allow students to work on techniques they choose, supplies are divided up by technique - please contact us if you have questions!
Everyone will need:
- 1-2 magazines to make your own disposable work surface for catching enamel dust
- Sharpie marker is handy for labeling enamel containers
- A good dust mask (I recommend a good one like 3M – 8233 (rated N100)
- tracing paper/sketch book, colored pencils if you like using them for designing
- small scissors (like embroidery scissors)
- towel/apron
- Copper or fine silver to enamel on– 18-22 ga
- 6” half round file if you work on copper, for cleaning edges between firings
- Any other metal or enamel supplies you might already have and want to bring.
For Cloisonne
- tweezers – clean and sharp, NOT previously used for soldering
- cheap eye dropper
- water color tray or about 12 plastic spoons
- small containers for washing colors and storing them wet
- fine silver or copper 20-22 gauge-
- washed colors if you have them and know how to prepare them
- silver/gold foil if you wish to use it
- plenty of cloisonné wire- pliers for forming it
- double stick scotch tape
For Painting Techniques
- Watercolor tray or plastic spoons
- Cheap eye dropper
- soft graphite pencils and a small pencil sharpener – I like to use various pencils, like 2B or softer
- kneaded eraser and or other kinds of erasers if you like them
- paintbrushes- including very fine ones for line techniques
- any water color, acrylic or painting materials you have- we will have some to share in class.
For Liquid Enamel Techniques
- Lots of copper – any gauge- even thinner foil
- Cut up credit cards, brushes and other experimental mark making tools (forks, tooth picks, scribes etc)
- Covered plastic container (like cool whip or tupperware)
- Set up for drying wet pieces (for example, wire trivets, spools of threads, jar lids, something to rest wet pieces on
- Old newspapers for protecting work surfaces