Jeweller, metalsmith, enameller
When demonstrating the techniques on the day I initially chose a light green enamel for the backgrounds of the champlevé and cloisonné tiles, but was disappointed with my initial results. The day of the video demonstration was fairly rushed - all three techniques had to be demonstrated and filmed in just one afternoon session, so some quick decisions were made at the time !
On finishing the samples I felt that the background colour looked weak and could be changed and improved so I decided to go for some different colours. I wanted to use the same colours on the copper and the silver samples, but eventually made some slight variations between the two. This was so that the tiles fitted in with each other better and it was also useful to show the differences that the different metals and effects achieved. I've included these samples to illustrate that colours and effects can be varied successfully, or as you may be able to spot - they can go a bit wrong !
There are still things I would do again to perfect my second attempts, particularly with the champlevé sample. As you can see, the blue on the first attempt is better as I didn't fire it over flux - it shows more of the engraved surface.
Champlevé, first colour try
In my final sample I used a flux base for all the colours, the reason being that the pink I was using needed a flux and I wanted to lighten the blue a little. This was not as successful as I had hoped - I should have either used a lighter blue, or stuck with the darker effect, without the flux under the blue. The flux, being a little softer than the blue, interacted, creating a spotted / mottled effect.
If I'm honest I also over fired it at one point which contributed to this .. well .. some would say .. big mistake ! And some might say, painterly effect !
I quite liked it but if I was going to get all technical ( and had more time ) I would have had another go - but you can go on forever, and perfection is so elusive !
So .. I'm pinning my description on the painterly option - artistic licence and all that ! If I'd had more sense I would have tested all my colours and planned a bit more in the first place - hindsight is a wonderful thing ! As you can see my first cloisonné sample is really horrid ! In my second attempt a few colour changes gave a bit more impact ...
Cloisonné, first colour try
