New Fold Form And Torch Enamel Earrings

I posted recently about experimenting with fold forming and enamelling - creating a definite division in the surface of the metal then enamelling both sides a different colour as seen in these disc earrings below

Well I've been playing around with the idea again and made two more pairs this time leaving one side of the fold bare copper. I used transparent enamels over opaque - you can achieve some lovely colours that way. 

A bit fiddly but that's all part of the fun :D

Raspberry transparent over ivory

Turquoise transparent over lichen green with a sprinkle of seafoam

Budding Metalsmiths! Great Videos Worth Watching On YouTube

I love browsing YouTube for tutorials on jewellery making techniques. At the moment it's soldering and in my search for helpful videos to watch I've come across some stinkers - you know the one's I mean where you can't see what the person is doing because their hands are in the way, or it's just a series of photos advertising their jewellery or the one's where they don't speak and just play some weird music instead...........

So I was really happy to find a series of videos (30) from Nancy LT Hamilton, a US jewellery maker, that are a joy to watch. You can see and hear her clearly, she knows what she's talking about and she's funny too. Plus she has a workroom to die for!

Nancy covers subjects including all about solder, fancy rivets, how to saw, annealing metal, how to make a ring plus some handy tips. So if you're a budding metal worker who's dying to know how to create a flush rivet or how to make your own fancy twisted wire I'd definitely recommend watching her videos :D

Enamel Experiment

I was browsing the forum on Barbara Lewis's Painting With Fire ning group the other night and saw a photo a member had posted showing how to fire an opalescent enamel correctly. He'd used what looked like a chasing on air fold formed copper disc and looking at it set something off in my brain!

I liked the idea of having a definite break in the surface of the disc which would make enamelling it in two different colours slightly easier than trying to achieve a gap or straight line by my, at times, rather shaky hand :D

So I got the disc cutter out and my torch and mallet and started playing. Made the fold, miraculously pretty well centred I have to say, into the pickle, a quick clean up then started playing with the enamel powders. I really wish I'd taken some photos along the way.......

After counter enamelling I used a small piece of card (a Moo minicard actually!) to cover one side of the front of the disc then sifted the nut brown onto the other side, carefully cleaning up any stray bits of enamel with a small paintbrush then fired it. I did try to sift both colours at the same time to start with but soon realised that wasn't a good idea - some of the seafoam got mixed with the nut brown and I had to abort and start again.

A quick clean up inbetween (enamelling isn't quick) then I sifted the seafoam and fired again. Repeated the whole process with another coat and this was the result...

I decided to pickle the discs again to remove the firescale then oxidised them to black and added some long sterling earwires with a matching czech glass bead.

It got me thinking about other designs.........like how having the fold running top to bottom slightly off centre to allow for the hanging hole would look pretty cool or just enamelling one side and leaving the other plain, textured or stamped which I would oxidise later.

I've certainly got lots of ideas buzzing round my head now. I'll try and remember to take some photos next time too :D



Finished!

The commission I had last week that is.

Not the best photos I've got to admit but my customer was happy :D

  The necklace and earrings will be winging their way to Virginia this morning :D