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Quick Enameled Earrings! - Virtual Workshop

In this live, online workshop, you will make quick and fun enameled earrings to give to your loved ones for the holidays (or keep 'em for yourself, we won’t tell)! This workshop will cover soldering steel posts to copper, using store bought and handmade stencils as well as paper punches to create patterns to then decorate and finish with enamel paints. Students can choose to work alongside the instructor virtually or refer back to the recording later to create a single pair or a series of earrings to give to family and friends.

Class will be held live via Zoom during the designated time frame. A link to the Zoom meeting will be sent via email.

The session will be recorded and you will receive a password protected link to the recording that will expire after 30 days. 

Please read the Materials & Tools tab! 

Meet the instructor

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Tanya Crane is a Southern California native who holds a degree in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and a degree in Art/Metals from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She seeks adventure and experience, which has led to a lifetime of moving from one metropolitan city to another. These experiences have informed her work offering a diverse range of materials, which she has integrated into her jewelry and sculptures that speak more to her research about identity and race, than to the material itself. Crane’s work has been on view most recently at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts and the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Materials & Tools

Students will need to have the following materials in preparation for this online workshop. If you do not already have them, a suggested item and/or a vendor from which you can purchase these items has been provided below. Click the vendor name (in red) to be redirected to a page where you can find or choose the item. The quantities you need for each item are listed first. Please be aware that some items may come in larger quantities than needed for this class. Please order these materials as soon as possible due to longer than usual turn-around times. We recommend not opening the enclosed packaging until the day of the workshop.

Painting enamels (get a variety of opaques - instructor suggestions below). 

  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine reed (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine intense black (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine lemon (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine ochre (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine poppy (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine mandarin (Cool Tools)
  • 1 x 10g pack of Ferro Sunshine mixing white (Cool Tools)

You will also need the following:

If you haven't enameled or don't know what colors to get, try getting a sample pack.

Firing equipment will be used throughout this course for enameling and soldering. The instructor recommends a kiln for enameling, but torch-firing will also work. 

Tools and equipment. 

Metal that will be used to make your enameled earrings. 

  • 1 x pack of 6"x12" copper sheet - 26 gauge (Rio Grande)
  • 1 x pack of surgical steel fusion ear posts - .029" x 7/16" (Rio Grande)
  • 1 x 1/4ozt eutectic solder - 1/16" diameter (Enamel Warehouse)
  • 1 foot x 20g Argentium® silver round wire - 1/2 hard (Rio Grande)
  • 1-2 x pack(s) of sterling silver 5mm medium weight ear nut (Rio Grande)
Students should bring

You will also want to provide the following common items: 

  • 22g copper sheet - if you want small flat earrings (Rio Grande)
  • dust mask
  • eye protection - for kiln / torch
  • glass containers - for mixing enamels
  • stencils - however many you like (Cool Tools)
  • rubber spatulas - for mixing enamels 
  • old utility tweezers - straight-tip 6" (Rio Grande)
  • fan and open window - for ventilation 
  • palette knife
  • 2 x glossy glazed tiles - for mixing enamels (hardware store)
  • pipettes
  • 90% isopropyl alcohol
  • paint brushe(s) - Princeton Snap! series 3/0 round - variety (Blick)
  • Hunt brand quill pen(s) with nib(s) - size #512, #513, #107 nibs work
 

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