Arcturus Jewellery Blog

My first sucessful attempt at enamelling!



OK, not perfect by any means but I'm rather pleased with it all the same.
I've torch-fired the lead-free enamels on .5 fine silver sheet with fine silver rectangular wire. I've used a combination of sifting and wet packing techniques. (And a bit of swearing when it's fallen face-down on the floor...)
The torch firing method is a little haphazard and tends the burn the outer edges, well, at least I do, until I get a bit better at it!
I intend to contruct a little hotplate kiln next in my next attempt at not spending money on a proper kiln and see what happens. The drawback of torch firing is it makes counter-enamelling difficult on thin pieces like this. The torch re-melts the back each time I fire, as the heat is directed at the underside of the piece. The result- a rather odd looking replica of the wire mesh that it's sitting on! The good thing that torch firing has taught me is how to judge when the enamel is "cooked" and will help me enormously when I start using a hotplate kiln that won't have fancy things like temperature control.
More attempts posted as I go!
And maybe next time I'll remember to drill a hole in the top too...