Week #9 Musings and More

So you know that Beck song that goes: Soy un perdedor... I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me? 

For years I thought it was, "I'm a lizard baby so why don't you kill me?"

I kinda still sing that in my head when the song comes on Pandora.  Anyway, trying to stave of feeling like a loser... or a lizard.  But it's hard when I've had two weeks in a row of NOT accomplishing my New Year's resolution of creating 10 items fo jewelry per week.

It's just... there are SO many things to do in life and I can't get to all of them.  :-)

So my "loserness" is totally tongue in cheek... I've been kicking butt on other projects and I know I'll get back to jewelry soon.

I have a couple custom orders hanging on the board that need to get taken care of.  

So this week, I made one piece of jewelry.  It was one of my staples, nothing new or inventive. It's a celebration of the fact that I finally understand the difference between high quality pearls... and what I used for the first years of my work.



So... how many of you sign up for those free workshops only to discover that there's one particle of useful info for every 100 particles you have to pay attention to?  Kinda makes me think about those timeshare meetings where you want to talk out of there with those free tickets to the concert (or whatever) but you must first endure the lengthy sales pitch.  I don't blame the sales people... they gotta make a living too.  My new thing is signing up for these and then either forgetting to attend or just not having time.

Besides, how much social media marketing info do I need if I'm so behind on jewelry making I don't even have anything listed on my website?  Ha ha ha!  What on earth would I be marketing?

So back I go into the studio... I actually *AM* working on jewelry today.  Mostly because I have new students coming on Sunday so I'm brushing up.  

My Cloisonne Enameling Shelf

First, we must laugh at me.  Well, at least I made it through 9 weeks (more or less).  Then the snowball started.  It was custom orders, then pandemic, and gallery closings, and tutorials, etc.  I am OFF the schedule, completely, of feeling the need to fill a quota.  As I said on Facebook, I've gone feral (in more ways than one).

On Saturday, I will catch you up on jewelry I've made recently.  On Friday, I'll catch you up on my latest tutorial.  And tomorrow, I'll show you the results of my comparison of finishing techniques for cloisonne.

But today I show you my cloisonne enameling shelf.  Not my enameling station... that's just my large work table with whatever set up I need for the day's project (kiln, torch, sifting, wet-packing, decals, graphite, liquid enamels, crackle, etc).  And not my regular enameling shelf (I've got two other places for enamel, but this one I'm showing you today is specific to cloisonne).

Recently, it came to my attention that as I got more involved in cloisonne enameling (and thus accumulated more "things"), I needed a new space.  If you are like me, finding space for a new space in your work studio is next to impossible.  But, because I spent three days cleaning garage #2, I can move things from garage #1 into garage #2, then I can move things from the studio into garage #1 (things I don't use on a daily basis).

So here's my new space.



I'm showing you because I want you to see, it's nothing fancy.  The "space" was put together using two piece of furniture I had in the house.  The bottom is a tv stand.  And on top of that, I have a cheap shoe rack.  (Both items can easily be found at most thrift stores.)

And for those who want to explore my space, read on...

Shelf #1: Some enameling do-dads by "I Love Enamels" and Eugenia Chan.  Some eutectic solder that I have not tried yet.  And a small fortune in JoolTool wheels.



Shelf #2: On the left is a tray of my finished test pieces.  I have each enamel color tested on fluxed silver, bare silver, and bare gold.  This whole tray will be for my leaded colors and I'll have to start another tray when I start making test strips of the unleaded colors.  The tray on the right has small containers of the already washed and sifted enamels that I have made color test strips for.  So basically, these are the colors I want to use ASAP (because they were wet at one point and I hear the shelf life on washed enamels is... well, not as long as the ones that haven't been washed... which is another reason to only wash a small amount at a time).



Shelf #3: My "I Love Enamels" catch trays for sifting over.  These are luxury items, but I like them and I figure I work with enamels enough that I can have some (okay a lot) of luxury items.  Put it this way, though... I have about 50 luxury items and I don't have a hydraulic press... so I'm sure it all balances out.  Next is my set up for sifting enamels for cloisonne.  The rest of the set is in my regular enamel area.  The tray on the right has enamels I've sifted and washed, but not yet made color test strips for (hey, these things take time!).  By the way, if you want to know what little jars I use for my wet-packs, it's these.  As I said, I only wash a little bit of enamel at a time... and every container I have has the enamel name on the lid as well as on the container itself.  This is a no-brainer move.



Shelf #4: On the left is a tray of odds and ends that I use for cloisonne.  Some nice tiny brushes from Pearly Karpel, some blue fuse (for champleve), cloisonne wire, (the foil and blue-stic were on my work table when I took this photo), needles, tissue blades, etc.  The box on the right has my "fines" (fines are the very tiny particle residue from sifting).  I usually use the fines as counter-enamel on test pieces, or pieces where the back won't show (see example in tomorrow's blog post).  Here are the containers I use for those (again, label the lid as well as the container, trust me).



Shelf #5: Left to right... Ninomiya (Japanese leaded) enamels, Hirosawa (Japanese leaded) enamels, a cookie sheet full of firing racks (my new Merry-Lee Rae firing rack was in use when I took this photo... I'd gotten the 3x3 and next time I order from Enamel Art Supply, I'm getting the 4x4 one.), and finally a couple of the 6-trivet firing racks.



Shelf #6:  Pearly Karpel enamels, a bowl of regular firing trivets, a Pearly Karpel enameling station, (and behind that) a heavy sheet of steel which is great to protect things when working with hot items, and finally a regular tripod for torching.



Shelf #7:  (Which is actually two shelves)... Upper: box of extra do-dads for enameling, alundum stones, Squeegee oil (the other oils are behind that one), and a cookie sheet with heavy mesh squares and fiber disks.  Lower: Sunshine enamels (for painting), a bowl of Eugenia Chan's awesome enameling baskets, a bowl of Pearly Karpel's awesome trivets.



And while we're here, I may as well explain some of the things you can see around the cloisonne station...

Let's start at the bottom left.  I have my dust buster because there are always little messes I want to clean up immediately (for example, I like to clean up the initial firescale that comes off the backs of my pieces right after I've applied the counter-enamel... I don't like things like that left to possibly contaminate anything for the rest of the work session).  Above that is a chart from Rio that I refer to a lot because is has some handy info, like what size drill bit to use for which gauge wire, etc.  The next three items (top left) are my two saws and a necklace I made.  I like my Green Lion for most of my sawing, but I use the larger German saw if I'm cutting a piece of sheet that is more than 3" (German saw has a deeper throat).  The shelving unit on the right holds my Thompson enamels.  And the thing at the bottom right of the photo is my robot vacuum that I love.  It cleans the floor after every work session, fits under almost all of my stations, and has a tray I can look through to see if it swept up anything I prefer to keep.



So there you have it.  A peek into my studio to see that I may not have a beautiful storage set-up, but what I have is organized and functional.  :-)

A Comparison of Cloisonne Finishing Techniques

How did this start?  Tangentially, like everything else in my life.  A couple days ago, I was making test pieces of some of my new enamels.



Two of the pieces I made were particularly striking.  These are Pearly Karpel's Kelly Green #463 and Blue Lake #213



… so I decided I wanted to make something with them.  Then I remembered that I had been wanting do some testing to compare hand-finishing of cloisonné versus finishing using a JoolTool.  My M.O. to date has kind of been to use both, but I want to isolate the methods in order to determine any differences.  Also, I know a number of awesome enamellists who mention not liking to use the JoolTool in the finishing process.  I don’t know if it’s because they just prefer other methods or if there’s something specific it does that is not good for the process.

So I grabbed two thick copper pieces that I had in a bin, cleaned them, and gave them a counter-enamel.  Then I created the fronts: flux and fire, silver foil and fire, flux and fire, cloisonné wires and fire, first layer of wet pack and fire, second layer of wet pack and fire, third layer of wet pack and fire, fourth layer of wet pack and fire. 



I made both pieces similar (for comparison) but not identical. 

When the enamel was at or just a smidge below the top of the wires, I began the two different finishing methods.

The first piece was finished all by hand, using only four different grits of diamond filing sticks (and water, or course). 



After the 800 grit file, I washed the piece well before fire-polishing back in the kiln.  Here are the results…



The first time I filed a cloisonné piece by hand, I learned the hard way that I was also taking off a certain amount of skin, mostly from my left thumb.  Thanks to a friend, I learned about these awesome finger protectors at Otto Frei.

The piece looks good and feels smooth.  I think I need to work on my hand filing, because the very center of the piece has less saturated color than the outer parts, leading me to believe when I file, I go over the center twice as often as I go over any other parts.  Darn!  Aw well… next time.

So then I took the second piece and finished it using the JoolTool.  I only used the coarse, medium, and fine diamond sanding wheels (and water, of course).



As before, after sanding/polishing I cleaned the piece and put it back into the kiln for a fire polish.



If you follow me on Facebook, you have heard me say more than once that I am trying to learn cloisonné from books and online resources.  There are limitations to that kind of learning, but I can’t take any in-person classes until the pandemic has abated so for now… there are pieces of the puzzle that are missing.

One such piece is… when I fire polish, my enamel sinks just enough to make the surface not feel like one smooth piece of glass anymore.  Okay, so I can sand/polish it again… but then I have to fire polish it again and will run into the same problem.

Here are the three things I can think of to try to combat this problem.  Other people end up with cloisonné that is smooth as glass and I want that too.  It’s just an aesthetic difference, but I’d like to know I can do it.

I can try sanding/polishing with finer and finer grit (I have the option with both methods) and continue to fire polish hoping that as some point, things stay level. 

I can try sanding/polishing by hand and NOT fire polish in the kiln.

I can sift a thin layer of clear over the whole surface and fire that to smoothness.

Just more experimenting.  Also I may write a follow up blog post about the use of cerium oxide in the finishing process.

So what’s my conclusion?  Hand filing might take longer but you can have more control.  The JoolTool can be faster, but that goes hand in hand with accidentally removing something you didn’t intend to.  And seriously, the way I do it there wasn't a huge time difference.  Does that mean I know what I'm doing?  No.  But with my limited newbie knowledge, they took roughly the same amount of time. 

Granted, I made my big error using the hand files, but I learned from that (don’t pass over the center so much!).  Both pieces are very smooth on top (just the slight sinking of the enamel from the fire polishing as described above).  

Also, note that I only sanded up to 800 grit with the diamond sanding sticks (the by-hand filing) while the JoolTools wheels may have given a higher grit effect (no clue what "grit" their "fine" is).  I will be trying finer grit sanding on these pieces so stay tuned for that.

I’m sure I’m not skilled or knowledgeable enough to understand why some enamellists don’t like the JoolTool.  Moving forward, and until proven otherwise, I may continue my hybrid method of using both the hand files and the JoolTool because at this moment I don’t see a difference. 

I’m thinking that as I progress and refine my skills, maybe then I’ll have a more discerning opinion.

My Open Front Cuff Ring Tutorial

As promised, this blog post is just to show you my latest tutorial (click here to see the listing with all the detailed info).



The tutorial is called "Open Front Cuff Rings" and in the instructions I show you two different basic ways to make the rings... open and slightly adjustable... or with a stone (and not adjustable).  Within each of THOSE basic styles, there are still so many variations.  My template has several different shapes for the ring band itself... and then you can do other things to the metal to further design the ring in other directions (etching, rolling, hammer textures, stamping, saw-piercing, etc).

In the second part of the tutorial, I show you how to set stones on these ring shanks using pre-fabricated bezels.



Here's one without a stone, but I etched the metal first (you may want to check out my simple copper etching tutorial too).



So many variations to try!

The tutorial is a combination of thorough handout with lots of text and images (also links to supplies)... AND videos showing most of the processes.  You have access to the videos for life... there is no cut-off date.

You also get to join a private Facebook group for only customers of this tutorial where we share experiences, tips and tricks, inspiration, and more.

Check out these photos from some of my first customers of this tutorial.  These rings are amazing!

First up, beauties from Tina Faxas (click here to see her awesome website)...




Next we have Lin Karrels...




And Leslie Litt...




And Susan Sandeno...




And Maritza Heurtas...




And Dianne Culbertson-Jacques (you can see Dianne's beautiful creations if you click here)...



You guys are rocking it!!!

There are more but I'm waiting for their permission for me to share their images here.  Stay tuned...

A Few Cloisonné Pieces and A Mermaid

Okay, let's catch you up.  What have I made since the last time I showed you my jewelry?

I wanted to try setting some enamel cabochon (cloisonné, to be specific) into traditional bezel settings.  By "traditional", I mean flat wire, not gallery wire or scalloped or serrated.  Those other wires are very easy to "push over" which is a good thing when it comes to pushing metal up against glass... but I like the look of a traditional bezel setting at times (most times) so wanted to see if I could do it.

I made two pieces at the same time (because there's a lot of "waiting" time when doing enamel... waiting for the wetpack to dry, waiting for the kiln to reach temp, waiting for the firing, waiting for the piece to cool, etc.  So if you're working on two pieces at once, you always have something to do while the other piece is in "wait" mode.  So the first one I did was inspired by a friend's water color painting.  I went off the rails and totally ignored her awesome color scheme... I got more into trying out as many new colors as I could and ended up with this.



If you're not familiar with the technique of cloisonné, you start with a piece of metal (I usually cut it from a large sheet of silver or copper).  Then I anneal and dome the metal.  Next I add a counter-enamel (fire a couple of layers of enamel on the back or reverse side which alleviates some of the pressure of the enamel that will be going onto the front).  Then if I've used copper as my base I have to flux (fire clear enamel) onto the front, then I fire a thick sheet of pure silver foil to the piece, then I fire another layer of flux over the silver, then I cut and shape as many pure silver wires (the cloison) and set them onto the piece and then fire those into place.  After all that, it's a matter of building up layers of color by placing wetpack (moistened enamel that has been sifted and washed) into each cell (or cloison area).  The piece gets fired after each layer is added and I usually add about 8 layers.  After that, I sand the piece to make a level surface.  I start with 120 grit and work my way up gradually to about 2000 grit.  Then the piece gets washed and put back into the kiln for a final firing.  Yay!  After that, I start fabricating the bezel that will hold the new cloisonné piece.

Here's a photo of part of the process.  This is where I'm beginning the wetpacking of the enamel into the cells using a very tiny brush.



This is the second piece I did alongside that first piece.



The other piece of jewelry I made was this custom order mermaid with larimar.  I created the chain from sterling silver using the technique of Viking knit.