Enameling on Copper Vessels with Harlan Butt

This vessel made by Harlan Butt.

In October of 2019 (pre-Covid), the Metal Arts Guild of Georgia (formerly the Georgia Goldsmith's Group) invited Harlan Butt to Atlanta to do a workshop on enameling vessels.  I had enameled flat/domed pieces previously, but never a large curved vessel. The enameling process is pretty much the same in all the classes I have taken, but there are a few differences when working on a much larger, curved surface.  

Harlan's teaching was exceptional.  Intelligent, kind, patient...and he is a true a lover of nature, which you can see in his work. 

We were all given a copper cup to begin.

We completely covered our cup in fine silver sheet, bit by bit, each layer fired.  Then a layer of clear enamel was placed on the entire piece, dried and fired.  We need this layer of enamel for the future wires to adhere to on the vessel.

Now the fun begins.  Harlan makes these wonderful little jigs which allow you to make a pattern out of brass just one time and use that pattern to form your fine silver cloisonne wires so you can create the same cloisonné wire design over and over.  What a time-saver this is!  There are more photos of Harlan's jig in my favorite enameling book, The Art of Enameling by Linda Darty (page 110).  Tip:  Always anneal your cloisonne wire.

Below you can see the pattern I decided to make.  One by one, I placed the the wires on the outside of my vessel with Lilly Root glue, which will keep those wires down a bit better than regular Klyr-Fire or Blu-Stik.

It's important to try to curve the wires a little bit before putting them onto the vessel.  Sometimes I added a little bit of wet-packed enamel to help hold them in place.  When it comes out of the kiln, touching the wires down gently with tweezers helps make sure they are formed well onto the piece.  I tried to finish 2 or 3 rows at a time before drying and firing.

Once the entire piece is ready to be enameled, it's time to prepare the enamels!  Most enamels you buy are 80 mesh.  For the best transparency, we used 325 sifter screen (some think 200 is better).  One can also wash the fines out by adding water to the enamel, swishing it around, letting it settle and draining off the milky fines on top.  Repeat this over and over until the water runs clear.  Once the enamel is washed, add a drop of Klyr Fire.  This is to help the enamel stick to your piece - remember we're enameling on a curved surface here and you want the enamel to stay in place.  Then enamel is done in this order:  1) Lighter transparencies, 2) Darker transparencies and 3) Opaques. Always rotate from firing on the bottom of vessel to firing on top.  Otherwise, the enamels can all run and gather in one direction, and we don't want that to happen.

When all the enameling is done, it's time to grind with an alundum stone followed by 400 and 600 sandpaper, then maybe 800.  Clean with ammonia and a brass brush (remember to use ammonia in a well ventilated area). We then fired again and pulled it out of the kiln as soon as it glazed over.  (You can always skip the last firing if you wish, and use diamond sticks, Zam or Cerium Oxide to finish). This is my almost finished piece:

Here are some of the vessels made by other classmates.

 And here's the happy bunch of us before departing for home after a wonderful workshop with Harlan.  If he ever comes to your town, I highly recommend you take his class. It's a great adventure!

My Filigree Bracelet with Gia Gogishvilli

I can't tell you how great it was to finally take a filigree class taught by Gia Gogishvilli, the master of filigree (and Repousee/Chasing and all metalwork)!  We had one week to learn how to twist the metal, flatten it, anneal, make solder, file the solder, make the filigree pieces, make the frames for the filigree, learn the proper gauges, make and solder hinges, etc.  It was a lot to learn.  Most of us needed a bit more time once the week was finished, so Gia set up a couple of extra time periods to meet again, which was extremely helpful to all of us.

So as complete beginners, we began with building our sterling silver frames.  One for the left, one for the right and one for the middle.  The size of these frames depend on the size of our wrists or whose wrist we we're making this cuff bracelet for.  We made cardboard templates to be sure of the sizing.

The basic frame

Using a template

Then we added the design inside the frame.  This wire must be fully annealed before shaping.

Adding the inner wires

Once the frames were built and all inner pieces soldered in place, we could then begin to make our filigree wire.  This is a process of taking two or three fine silver wires and twisting them to the point of breaking...annealing and then twisting even more.  It is difficult as a beginner to know when the wire is twisted enough because it's far tighter than one can imagine.  Once the twisting is complete, we run the wire through the rolling mill to flatten.  We then anneal one more time before beginning to make filigree wires.

There are different types of filigree wires, called ornaments.  Some have a single loop, some have a double loop and others have a tight double loop.  I've seen some filigree made with just loops and no tail.  I decided to do a tight double loop for this project.  The wires are supposed to all look exactly the same, but I need more practice with this.

Adding Filigree (ornaments)

As we insert the ornaments into the frame, each one is supposed to fit snugly.  The goal is to fill an entire frame with ornaments before soldering, but some of us had trouble with that in how they would keep popping out because we were not placing them properly.  It takes practice!  Once a frame is complete, we turn it over and solder with filigree solder, which is more like a powder than regular silver solder.  You can make your own solder by combining silver, copper, brass, cadmium and zinc with flux and borax, which turns it into a hard piece of metal.  You must then file this piece of metal to make your solder for filigree.

With persistence, the frames eventually fill up!



Now it's time to make the flower that will be placed in the middle over the large opening and also make the small half circles that will form the edging of the bracelet.

Adding the edging

Soldering the flower

Now comes the hinges.  These were simple 3 way hinges made out of tubing.

Trying to decide which stone to use.

What's next?  Finishing the hinges, forming the entire bracelet, cleaning and polishing and setting the stone.  Phew!

The Finished Bracelet

The back hinge

What an amazing experience!  Thank you Gia!  Until next time...

(Edited 3/15/18)

Textures in Metal Clay

I recently took a class in Metal Clay with Pam East.  The only experience I had in this medium was a week-long class at Wildacres in North Carolina with Janet Harriman in 2013.  Metal clay is a clay-like medium that consists of very small particles of metal (silver, gold, bronze or copper) that is mixed with a binder and water.  It can be shaped just like clay, molded by hand, carved, stamped and put into molds.  After it dries, it is fired and the binder burns away leaving the pure sintered metal.  

We started out with some simple pieces using bronze and copper, and later moved to fine silver.  I discovered that Metal Clay is the BEST for textures. You can get deep, dramatic patterns using something called Photo Polymer Plates.  Here is the how-to video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI_o4VqptI4.  

I also discovered it's a friendly medium for 24k gold keum boo (a technique for applying 24K gold to silver). Because fired silver metal clay is more porous than regular silver, the gold practically melts onto the silver when heating on a small kiln.  Here's a how-to video on keum boo:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWf8lOiXM6U.

Another benefit is the ability to insert gemstones into the metal prior to firing.  Only specific stones can take the high temperatures required for metal clay, so it's important to make sure the gemstones you are using are safe.  Cool Tools has an excellent gemstone firing guide online.

Metal clay is a whole new medium for me and an exciting new tool in my toolbox of metalworking skills. There are some experienced metal clay artists doing amazing things...Gordon K. Uyehara, Celie Fago, and Ivy Soloman to name just a few.  Holly Gage won the 2015 Saul Bell Award in Metal Clay with this necklace:

The 2016 Saul Bell award went to Rodica Frunze with this piece:

Filigree Earrings

While still fresh from my filigree class, I wanted to make something a little more simple.  Filigree earrings!  I messed around with a few designs on paper for a bit and finally came up with something suitable...and simple enough.

I began with square wire, 16 gauge, to make the frames, formed and soldered together with regular silver solder.  Until the class with Gia, I had not realized the utmost importance of getting these curves correctly done.  They have to be perfect.  No dents, no sign of having been misshapen and reshaped...just smooth and curvy.

I then twisted 2 lines of 22 gauge fine silver into filigree wire by attaching one end of the wires to my doorknob and the other in my Foredom, basically stretching across the length of my studio.  Holding the wire straight and tight, I turned on the drill and it twisted until it broke, at which time I annealed and twisted again.  (It may seem a little scary to do this at first, but you'll get used to it.)  Once satisfied with the tight twist of the wire, I annealed it and ran it carefully through the rolling mill.  Then I made the small "ornaments" which will fill all the little spaces in the earring.  This time I used a double loop, with the outside loop being a little bit larger than the inner loop.  I also used Victoria Landsford's Filigree Solder (Rio Grande) which is far easier than making my own and works quite well.

Some teachers think it's best to form lots and lots of little ornaments before placing, and others think it's best to make one at a time.  Each one has to fit correctly in the space it is going to be placed, so even if you make them ahead of time, you will often have to clip a little off the end to make it fit correctly.  So it's up to you how you want to do this.

I considered putting a gemstone in the middle of the earring, which would have been lovely, but because I used such heavy square wire for the frame, the earrings were leaning towards being on the heavy side, so left them out.  I do like the look of a solid, heavy frame, though.  In this next pair, I used a smaller gauge wire for the outside and inside frames.

Even though they weigh less, the outside and inside frames are not as prominent to the eye.  I think I will continue using the 16 gauge square wires in the future.

Perhaps a filigree ring will be next on my project list...