Sue M

Enamel is making a comeback.

I know that as I search it out specifically, my bias might be a bit skewed, but I seem to find more and more enamel artists. Or at least they are out on the web in greater numbers. I meet a lot of people who dabbled in enamel in high school or college in the 1950’s or 60’s, but I also know many people are unfamiliar with enamel beyond its use in tubs and sinks, if that.

Enamel has its industrial uses. It is the used to coat sinks, bathtubs (think claw-foot) and signs. The old signs for the Underground stations, London’s subway, are enamel. Cities and towns are going back to enamel signs, finding that they are a better investment than plastic for their durability.

it is also one of the oldest ways of decorating metal.

If you are looking at enamel jewelry and don’t know anything about what you are looking at there are some things to look for. “Enamel” is used for costume jewelry that is painted and made in China. It shouldn’t look cheap. It should feel like glass. Most enamel jewelry is given a final firing to bring up the glossiness of the piece and any matte surfaces should be deliberate. Look at the back of the enamel (if you can. It should have a similar amount of enamel on the reverse of the piece. This is something that gives the enamel stability, the metal needs to have enamel on both sides to keep from crazing (cracks) or chipping off. The enamel should be from edge to edge and an equal thickness throughout. There should be no burn out ( where the enamel pulled away or burnt off exposing the metal) or splotches where the color fades away. This is not to say that these looks can’t be incorporated into a piece, but again it should be deliberate.

Enamel comes in many forms(including cloisonne, painting, champleve, plique-a-jour, screen print ,and scrafita), from many different places(USA, UK, Japan), and these days in many different mediums(including liquid, powder, crayons, decals, and watercolors). Heat is needed to fuse the glass to the metal. Some use a kiln, others a jeweler’s torch - each gives the enamel a different look. so does how long you heat the piece, at what temperature, how much adhesive and how it is applied, how well you clean the piece between firings, what kind of enamel is used and what color. The list is endless.

When you see an enameled piece, you are looking at something that is labor intensive and for the most part does not have shortcuts that do not end up showing up in the finished piece. Usually you work on one piece at a time.

That is not to say that there are not bad enamelers out there or artists that do not know how to price their wares, but most of what I have seen has been inventive, priced reasonably,  and beautiful - wearable works of art.

I finally took the plunge. I took my first booth at a craft fair.

I have been thinking about it for awhile. I figured with the holiday season coming it would be a good way to get my feet wet for next year, when I plan to really push my jewelry.

I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find shows. I was looking for small shows, ones at schools or churches

It wasn’t a good fit. I will definitely do it again, but at different show. I think a juried show. I found this one at the last minute and though it was great experience for me, I obviously didn’t belong in that kind of venue.

Well, more searching and definitely more vetting is in my future.

So its been a year. The queen of procrastinators still rules.

I am finally opening up a shop on Etsy.com. I started a year ago.

I have the items I want to sell and my shop policies all figured out. Now I just need to actually do it. Put the photos up, figure out the prices and make sure everything is in its place. Yeah!

I was surfing through various jewelry sites and came across a blog article on ObectFetish entitled What is Art Jewelry?   Which had a great definition of art jewelry. I especially liked that the definition included interaction of the jewelry and the wearer.

Jewelry is meant to be worn.  As a jewelry designer I try to make something that someone else will not only find beautiful, but something that they want to wear.  I try to take into account what the piece is and how it will probably be worn and that becomes part of my practical design.  The article doesn’t address the emotional aspect of art, which I think is another important aspect.  Art is not just craft, it is the concept of emotional expression. I love what I do. I try to impart that, as well as my love of color and clean lines, into my jewelry as part of my artistic design.

What does the jewelry make the wearer feel? What does the world think or feel about the wearer of art jewelry? How much does that influence the wearer or the artist? Art in all its forms reflects artistic emotion. To me art is an emotional experience. Music can make me dance, sing out loud, cry or change the dial. I can spend hours going through certain rooms of a museum and just glance in at others. I usually am the first to finish my meal, but I have been known to linger and lick the bowl before I am done.

In today’s mass market, I feel that my jewelry is a way for others to show their individuality, to stand out from the crowd. Be it bold, delicate, colorful, etc. , even that you wear jewelry says something to others.  It is a detail that imparts information, a clue to who you are and possibly what you think about yourself. I want my jewelry to be an emotional experience, hopefully a positive one.

I have the worst luck with solder.

That was the start of a post I started some time ago. I was starting to doubt myself. I had always had a good knack for soldering and all of a sudden my knack was gone. I was burning things and making newbie mistakes.

I have been working a major piece. The bezels were made, I make everything by hand, I just need to put small balls between each bezel so that I can hammer set my enamels and begin assembling the piece. Everything was prepared, everything cleaned there were even little grooves so the ball has surface area to adhere to. They wouldn’t stick. The little ball would detach itself from the first bezel to attach itself to the second and then visa versa. Back and forth, it goes without saying I was frustrated.

It seems that I caused my problems. All because I followed a practice that I have seen mentioned in articles and books. Mark your solder sheet with different color waterbased markers to help identify the small pieces of solder that seem to float around the workbench. Keeps everything organized.

Well I say don’t do it.

The marker seems to act like anti-flux, keeping the solder from flowing. If I have to be wasteful sometimes because I can’t remember if I have hard or med solder on my work bench,oh well. I’ll get a pill box and organize it that way. It’s not worth the aggravation.

I fell and hurt my left hand when I was on vacation.

Being right handed and on vacation I was able to rest it, elevate it, ice it and basically let it heal up. I get to find out what the damage is tomorrow. Meanwhile I have become very aware of what movements use which muscles in your hand.

Jewelry making hasn’t been the most comfortable thing to do, I have to admit I hadn’t really thought about how much I take having 2 working hands for granted. I am taking things slow and not pushing through the pain (or least past the uncomfortableness), but rather taking the time to do things differently. Or at least to think of how to do it in another manner. I haven’t been able to do much in terms of producing anything in the week I’ve been back.

I often just throw myself into a project. Starting where it seems to make sense and working my way to the end of the idea. It is often in answer to my “what do I do next” thought that haunts me. I have also been known to make a mountain out of a molehill and take forever to get something done , but diving into the workload has meant that I conquered the mountain because I didn’t stop to realize it wasn’t a molehill. Not being able to do that at the moment, I had to figure out what I could do that would be practical to do in the summer heat.

I am currently making a lot of test pieces of my enamel colors. A necessary evil that will make my life easier in the long run and something I can do in a one-handed assembly line. I have purchased some leaded enamels, which I have just begun to use, so I will know what the colors will look like if I follow the same kiln temp and time as the tests. It is a molehill starting point.

I may even do them for the mountain of different colored enamels that I usually use - all ,what- 156 colors (I bought the sample kit of every color.)

I love jewelry. I don’t always wear a lot of it, but I love what I own. It has always attracted me. I have inherited some, made some and bought the majority- some of my favorites have been souvenirs.

I like to look at the jewelry that people wear. Is it a signature piece? Something that they always wear? Does it match their outfit?

What I don’t like is looking at an editorial that doesn’t accurately describe the piece. Couldn’t the writer have asked the designer? I was looking at the New York Times last Sunday and their editorial on summer jewelry had a photo of a nice shiny silver cuff that they described as oxidized. It was not oxidized. The earrings above it were oxidized. The bracelet was bright and shiny.

For those of you who don’t , but want to know, oxidized silver is when you darken the silver, usually using liver of sulfur. Hence the wrongness of the bright shiny bracelet.

Not that I have anything against great copy to sell your jewelry or in this case the magazine selling the editorial content, but I like accuracy too. I like to feel that I get what I paid for.

Though I have to say that the best marketing spiel that I came across just recently was a $300 organic copper bracelet. My first instinct was metal can’t be organic because you have to process the metal in someway to get it into workable material. A scientist friend said that metal isn’t organic because it isn’t carbon based. My marketing guru said great way to differentiate that bracelet from the competition.

Lately I have been reminiscing about why I do what I do. Why do I continue to enamel and solder in triple digit weather? What… well you get the drift, so I am listing them (inpo)

I still lose track of time when I am working on a piece.

I love the “will it work out” cliff hanger aspect of layering enamel.

It fills some creative part of me that I didn’t have the courage to believe existed within me. I love making something that adds beauty.

It is kickass to work with power tools and a 1700 degree oven.

More to come as I think of them.

Enamel…glass on metal at its most basic.