Book Review – The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration

In one heartfelt swoop, Linda Darty has gathered and confessed, "Enameling, the art of fusing glass onto metal to create colorful and imaginative designs, is one of the oldest methods used to decorate metal," by updating what should have already been known.

Fortunately, Ms. Darty is one among few with enough confidence and experience to anticipate advancement of the field with more fact than fiction. Whether treated as an art, as a craft, or as a pastime, the act of enameling is fundamentally the same. The person committing the action determines the degree of commitment. The degrees to which one will delve into the alchemy, art and science is a matter of self-education requiring comprehension that opens all and closes no doors.

The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration by Linda Darty Price: $24.95 Hardcover, 176 pages, full color Manufacturer: Lark Release data: 01 November, 2004

About the book

This book is profoundly logical, extremely obvious and demystifying. Even with the passive pigeonhole edit, cut and clutter of Lark Book's editorial and art staff, the book and it's content presents more relevant information about glass on metal than has ever been put into print in a single volume. Very few basic points were missed in this rich new standard.

There is something to be said about a picture being worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, there are times when one cannot see what was written about or read about what could be seen. A second edition or a volume two must be considered because the open­ing act was so far beyond the common 'how-to' as to be profound.

The overt simplicity of this book chronicles discovery, offers assistance, and invites discovery. Linda has, by relating procedures and process with clarity, created a fundamental text that can propel one into the future without the yank back of the bungee cord.

The long-blunted elemental edges of the craft have been re-sharpened by the reinvention of integrity, not child's play or constant repetition of the same old rehash. This author has fresh eyes.

The book is no ego trip for either the author or the student. It is more of an exercise set before the potential. Glass on metal as a medium beholding to no one. The examples in this book clearly mark difference brought forth from the same elemental materials.

This book offers a complete refreshment so basic that even the advanced will rejoice and admire the magnitude of the author's commitment to consistent clarity and willingness, without nothing she knows, or knows of, and more importantly has experienced.

Note: Linda Darty was a student of mine at Penland. She was treated no different than any of the others that have been a student of mine. While I do hear much of my knowledge in her, she wrote the book. Lark Books was overwhelmed by her strength, dedication, and overall ability to require good old-fashioned country-style truth. Linda has a life filled with the positive. She is empowered with knowledge and character because she never misrepresented herself or her ability, nor those of others so committed. Yes, I am prejudice.

By Bill Helwig – © Glass On Metal

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Glass on Metal is the only publication dedicated to enameling and related arts. Technical information, book reviews, how-to articles and insight on contemporary enamelers highlight each issue.