These are a few of the enameling projects that I completed in the 70’s and 80’s. Some were given as gifts and have found their way back to me. The intense color, transparency and reflective surface of enamel is unlike any other craft medium. Enamel is basically ground glass that is applied to a metal surface and then melted in a hot kiln. It may be manipulated while hot, fired many times for layers of color and applied in a variety of manners such as painting, dusting or stenciling.
The bowl with flowers is 6″ in diameter, opaque blue enamel with opaque red and yellow stenciled on, then outlined in black. The “maple leaf” bowl, also 6″, uses transparent enamels that let the bright copper color shine through. Thick transparent enamel in the center was manipulated while hot to create the highly textured leaf shape.
The 6″ bowl with dots uses a combination of opaque and transparent enamels. Transparent lump enamels melted in the middle create the dots. The hot dish holder is a 6″ square tile with stenciled design made especially for my husband’s mother who collects blue and white china.
Winter Moon tray (left), Millefiore Tree tray (right), and Raked tray (bottom), all had former lives as ashtrays.
Dish with Millefiore, and another hot dish holder.
This little picture holder is only 1.5 inches square and is hinged so it folds closed. A combination of opaque and transparent enamels creates a luminous surface. It sat on my Mom’s dresser for over 25 years holding school pictures of my children, who are now adults with their own children.
