Photo 1: Apply a coat of enamel on a piece of domed copper and fire.
Photo 2. A sheet of silver foil is adhered to the enamel surface with gum solution and fired.
Photo 3: Once the foil has been fired, it is burnished with a glass brush.
Photo 4: The edge of the disc is filed to remove excess foil.
Photo 5: Black enamel is placed into a metal bowl secured to a firing rack, specially designed for this technique.
This is placed into the furnace and left until the black enamel has become completely molten.
Photos 7 and 8: The silver disc is set on a piece of mica, and these are placed onto a second firing rack. These are put into the furnace on top of the first firing rack with metal bowl. The second firing rack has bent-over legs which are long enough to straddle the first firing rack. However, the second firing rack is positioned so that it is close to the metal bowl containing the black enamel, but not covering it. The sheet mica prevents the black enamel from dripping onto both firing racks.
Photo 9: After a few minutes of both firing racks being in the furnace, a scrolling tool point is used (inside the furnace) to pick up a glob of the molten black enamel and form enamel threads, which are allowed to fall on the silver disc, intertwining them to form spaces.
Photo 10: When a pleasing pattern of intertwined threads is achieved, both firing racks are taken out of the furnace and allowed to cool.
Photo 11: Again, the edge is filed, this time to remove the enamel thread excess.
Photo 12: Washed transparent enamels are wet-inlayed into the spaces formed by the black threads. The enamel is dried and then fired in the furnace.
Photo 13: The finished product. For more information about the authors, contact them at: Linea Libre, Cuenca 3360, 2 dto. D, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina, C1417ABF, (54-11) 4504-6871; www.linealibre.com.ar.
By Hugo Ostermann and Valeria Serrudo [Volume 25, Number 3, June, 2006]
In association with
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.
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