Enamel Technique - Forging art from melted glass
Vitreous enamelling is an ancient technique, dating back to Egyptian times. It entails using a kiln to melt coloured glass powders onto metals: either gold, silver, copper or steel. The resultant thin layers of glass are vividly coloured, hard and durable.
The technique is quite sensitive and extensive preparation and expertise are required to generate a quality result. The kilns operate at 750 - 850 celsius and the colours and different layers react and blend in complex ways. This makes each piece of enamel artwork unique. The enamels can be opaque, translucent, opalescent or metallic.
We design and create our own enamel artworks at three different scales:
- At the small scale (2-30mm), we incorporate fine enamel into our silver and copper jewellery. You can view the results on the jewellery pages. Silver is particularly suitable for complementing with translucent enamels, as the underlying metal adds visible depth and complexity. We treat the resultant unique combinations of precious metal and bright colour as bespoke wearable miniature artworks.
- At a moderate scale, (16cm by 16cm) Andrew creates standalone artworks, designed for wall hanging. These unique hybrid works consist of jewellery grade enamels fused onto steel plate. The result is intense and brilliant coloured designs with a slight relief - reflecting light and increasing the presence of the work. They are displayed below and for sale on this site.
- At the large scale (0.5 - 2m+) Andrew creates science fiction themed stainless steel and enamelled steel outdoor artworks and sculptures. This entails industrial scale enamelling ovens, forging and welding. The artworks are linked to science fiction short stories and presented within a separate website: www.scenario2100.com.
Michelle and Andrew are members of the UK Guild of Enamellers https://guildofenamellers.org/ Andrew is also a member of the French industry association Maison de L' Emaille https://www.maison-email.com/ and creates the large enamel works in the MDE shared workshop in Morez, France.