Lillian Jones

One thing about enameling, the color is marvelous. The Color is the point, mostly. But on a bad day, it can be is awful. Color in enamel depends on color combinations, and if you pick the right colors all is well. If not, then your piece goes into the box in the drawer.

It is so frustrating to do all the wirework, and all the preparation, to have your colors go wrong. And if your colors are beautiful, that enamel sells right away, and you have lost the color palette.

Obviously, I need a strategy to both create and retain color combinations. Knowing what enamels I used to get there would be helpful, too.

As the morning sun lit an arrangement of freesias in the dining room, I had an idea. The colors were so lovely, I wondered if I could capture them in enamel. So I photographed them.

I used photoshop to pull likely colors from the photo, and made a digital palette of color. Enamel over silver has a lot the same brillance as color on a computer screen, and I thought I could come close to duplicating the colors on a small sample chip.

So I prepared some sample cloisonne bases, using quick and non-fussy wirework, just enough to hold the colors.

The final enamel ‘palettes’ are not beautiful, but they give me guidance for the actual work. I wrote down the enamels I used, so now I can design the piece with better confidence. Also I can show the palettes to customers who may want designs in custom colors. I have heard this referred to as ‘colorways’ in fabric printing.

Here is how the information retained in the palette is used. It looks a lot better in the final designs.