Ever on the hunt to learn new techniques as I try to find my jewellery “style”, I’ve recently tried my hand at enamelling. So, please join me in my first attempts at enamelling! In this post, I’m sharing the way I attempted enamelling (it’s very likely not right!) and things I learnt the hard way. If you don’t fancy reading about it, you’re more than welcome to check out my video, which will give you a good idea of what I did!
I don’t know about you, but I am my own worst self-critic. Or perhaps that’s better put as “I am very self aware”. However you wish to label it, I remain critical of my and I’m still aiming to improve 2 design points in my work.
The first is shape and form – I always find my jewellery a bit two-dimensional. On the whole, my jewellery looks a bit, well, flat. I’ve started to learn some techniques to add a bit of shape and interest, such as forming and shaping. And it’s something that I’m continuing to work on.
The second is colour – I’ve tried lots of ways of adding colour into my jewellery. One of the first things I attempted when I started out was setting a cabochon in a bezel. More recently, I’ve started considering the overall aesthetic of my work, incorporating beads into the final piece. But I suppose, cabs and beads are expensive, and sometimes, I just can’t do what I want with them. As an example, we have just recently celebrated Chinese New Year, and I really wanted to make a piece of jewellery to celebrate. However, I just didn’t have the skills to incorporate the bright colours that I wanted to really celebrate the joy of bringing in a new year.
Cue: Enamelling
Luckily enough, Father Christmas, decided that I had been good last year and gifted me an enamelling set. Enamelling is technique where you fuse powdered glass to metal. Do a Google search and you will see some fantastic examples of enamelling (jewellery and otherwise!). The intricate patterns and details that skilled people are able to achieve simply blows me away. (Warning: my attempt looks nothing like a professional’s work).
Here’s the enamelling set that I used – the nice thing about the EF Color enamels is that you can heat them in a normal oven, which is great if you don’t have a kiln or a torch. (Or if, like me, you’re afraid of overheating it with the torch!). In any case, it’s a nice way to start out for a beginner.
The set comes with 10 different colours of enamel powders, two sieve tops that fit the tubes, three copper blanks and three jump rings. Everything you need to test the waters, if you’re not sure if enamelling is for you. My only complaint, if you can call it a complaint, is that the set didn’t come with a fire stand. Then again, I didn’t realise it was a problem until much later on in the process.
Step One: Prepping
Like all jewellery making, the first step is prep! As ever, I was impatient to get started, so I just worked with one of the copper blanks in the box. I grabbed a bit of 2000 grit emery paper and filed both sides of the copper – mostly, this was to remove surface oil and scratches.
Next, I lay out some sheets of paper so that I could catch all the excess enamel powder. I recommend you use a different sheet of paper for each colour. That way you avoid cross-contaminating the enamel powders.
Step Two: Apply the Powder
When you open the box, you’ll find two little sieve caps inside. These are meant to be pressed onto the top of your chosen enamel powder bottle. That way, you can sprinkle the powder out evenly. But, being the dunce that I am, I didn’t realise that you were meant to fix the sieve onto the bottle… Whoops!
I discovered that you can be quite liberal with the enamel powder, otherwise, it didn’t seem to coat the metal evenly. In my case, I found that I didn’t apply enough and needed two coats of my base colour.
Once you’ve applied your enamel powder, transfer the piece onto a baking sheet to go into the oven. To protect my baking sheet, I put down some baking paper to catch spills. I also placed a soldering block on top to hold my piece.
Step Three: Firing the Piece
To fire the piece, I put it in my kitchen oven at 180 degrees celsius for 3-4 minutes. It really was that straightforward!
Step Four: Repeat Steps Two & Three!
After that, it’s a simple repeating process of letting the piece cool down a bit, adding your next layer of colour and then firing to melt the powder.
Et voila! Here’s my very first attempt at enamelling! It’s definitely not perfect!
Enamelling Nuances
Alright, so the basic process with the EF Colors is fairly simple, but I did discover some nuances:
- If you’re going to apply enamel to both sides, you probably need a fire stand to make your life easier. If your piece is laying flat on a surface, then the underlying layer is going to heat up again in the oven, melt and stick to whatever it’s sitting on. Yes, I know that should have been obvious to me. The fire stand will also make it easier for you to get the piece out of the oven without scuffing the surface of your work (which I did more than once).
- If you don’t have a fire stand, then you’re going to need to let your piece cool and harden on the soldering block before trying to move it and applying the next layer. I’ll admit, patience was not one of my virtues on the day I tried enamelling and I did mess up the surface of my piece.
- If you’ve only got the sieves that come with the box, don’t try to do anything too intricate. I found it difficult to control where the powder ended up, even with a stencil.
Conclusion
As a beginner, I really like the EF Color enamel set. It’s a great intro into how enamelling works, and doesn’t require you to buy a lot of equipment. You can get some great effects and I’m sure with a little more practice, I’ll be able to get a tidier finish.
The main disadvantage for me is that I don’t think you have enough control over where the powder goes, meaning that you can’t achieve really detailed designs (someone correct me if I’m wrong!). After trying out this set, I did some more research into enamelling. I discovered that there’s a technique called wet enamelling, where you mix water with the enamel powder. Unfortunately, I don’t think it works with the EF Colors as they’re low temperature enamels. Shame!
Anyway, after testing out the set by myself, I was confident enough to let my daughter’s Brownies group have a go. They absolutely loved it and came up with some fantastic designs, which I’ll leave you with! Until next time!
