Category archives: Enamelling

This shows the different stages in painting the reproduction of Saba with a Glass of Wine (original by  by Fabian Perez)

I've not had time to update this blog for a while. Here's a picture of a project I completed recently for some cloisonné doorknobs for a handmade kitchen cabinet. The designs incorporate the first initials for the members of the family, with the large doorknobs for the children and the smaller ones for the parents. The rest of the doorknobs are all based on a wine theme.

This was a really nice commission to get, and I got the chance to learn how to do cloisonné!

See the gallery here for close-ups.

I'm fully booked for Christmas 2013! I can't complain really, but it's not so good for my customers who'd like to find a special gift. It doesn't take much to get me fully booked so I always recommend placing your order well in advance. It takes 3 weeks to create an enamel box from start to finish, so placing the commission by July wouldn't be unreasonable. As always, please email me for availability and to discuss your requirements.

All five of my entries for the Royal Society's exhibition have been accepted. This is really the best that I could have hoped for.

At first I thought that none of my pieces had been selected. Later I found all five codes listed on the Society's website under the Sculpture heading! I guess because these are enamel boxes they need to be exhibited in a similar way to sculpture.

Here's the five enamels with their titles:

Baby Orla (62mm x 82mm)

I use on-glaze enamel paints and mix them with oil and turps substitute to get the right consistency. The turps thins the paint down and the oil acts as a binder. I'm currently using lavendar oil, although I'm finding this a bit thin for some purposes, like stippling.

The important thing is to minimize the number of firings. To do this I aim to cover the whole piece with paint for each firing, resisting the tempation to focus on just one area. Each firing typically takes about a minute at 800oC. In this case the enamel lid was quite thin so it only needed 50 seconds.

I recently painted a portrait of Louis Armstrong onto an enamel box lid. I took photos after each firing stage.

Here's after the first firing

Photographing enamels has always been difficult. The shiny surface makes the light reflections awkward. However I came across some useful tips on Saachti online for photographing artwork in general, here's a summary adapted for photographing enamel paintings: