Category archives: Miniature Enamel Painting

I got three of these accepted into the Royal Miniature Societies Exhibition this year at the Mall Galleries, London. I can't believe it! I didn't quite manage to get the chance to become an Associate Member of the Royal Miniature Society - if only I'd got the other two accepted....

I got all five entries accepted into the Royal Miniature Society Exhibition! Very pleased indeed! I think I've got to start planning now to do the same for next year!

Here are my entries for the 2018 Royal Miniature Society exhibition. I've been busy with all manner of different things so I've just not managed to enter anything since 2013. Hopefully I'll get these five through the selection process!

I've got the beginnings of a watch case but, as of yet, no dial that I'm prepared to drill a hole in. I'm not going to put a hole into the cloisonné enamel frog!

My starting point is to create domed dials, this is because enamel miniatures typically require several firings and a domed dial will minimize warping. From fitting into the watch point of view, a flat dial would be easier but in the long term a domed dial will far superior for enamelling applications.

Warping is less of a problem for cloisonne (although still an issue) since the wires and counter-enamelling give the piece a greater thickness and structure that help to control warpage. However, I found a domed surface gives more interesting light reflections, it's more difficult to bend the wires over a domed surface but I got plenty of practice when I made these set of enamel doorknobs.

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

Another good article by Barry Leighton for the Swindon Advertiser. I feel like a celebrity! Here is the online version. Well, there are no more exhibitions planned for a while, the next thing for me is to pass selection for the Guild of Enamellers Associate Craftsman in 2014.

Here's my page in the Heart of the Heat catalogue, I hope you can read the description.

I appeared in Monday's edition of our local paper, the Swindon Advertiser. The journalist referred to me as the Fabergé of Freshbrook (the region of Swindon where I live) to which I was over the moon. The article was stimulated by my getting all five entry pieces into the Royal Society of Miniature Painters Sculptors and Gravers annual exhibition. The journalist's name was Barry Leighton and he went out of his way to understand the enamelling process so he could write about it accurately. Here's a link to the online version

Last Wednesday I visited the Mall Galleries where my enamel boxes are on display in the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Exhibition. I met up with my friend Valerie who visits the galleries around London far more frequently than me. Valerie was also a good friend of the late Anthony Phillips and I was glad for her support for this, my first, exhibition.

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)