I enamel on various metals making a variety of pieces from post earrings to 5″ ten 8″ framed enamels. The enameling techniques I utilise for sterling silver are cloisonné, champlevé and plique-à-jour. When I began enameling in 1971, it was accepted that true transparent enamels could not be used on sterling silver. After studying with Joanna Stone, I persevered with my experimentation until I adult a procedure for enameling on sterling argent. Every pace is important.

Tree of Life: Meditation necklace. iii″ x six″
champlevé sterling, fine silvery, opaque enamel.

My sterling enamel jewelry pieces are made with a narrow sterling frame that I cut out with a jeweler's saw blade. The aforementioned pattern is used to cutting out both the bottom piece and the frame. The frame is sweat soldered to the face of the sterling piece that is to be enameled. This method eliminates the need for making a bezel setting for the enamel. I likewise use this method for combining champlevé with the cloisonné. Instead of making just a frame, I saw out 2 full size pieces and then saw out cells in which I will enamel and identify cloisonné wires in either some or all of the cells.

The sterling silverish needs to exist accurately alloyed of no less than 92/100 argent content. Reputable refiners tin exercise this. I specify that the sterling is to be enameled and, if possible, the sheets are to exist annealed. When I utilise 24 ga for the enameled piece, I select 18 ga for the frame. With an enamel piece of 18 ga, I utilize xx ga to 22 ga for the frame. The 18 ga base needs only ane counter enamel coat. Since the thinner guess will warp hands, it needs about iii coats of counter.

I often do an verbal drawing using colored pencils. From the drawing, I make templates of 20 ga to 22 ga copper as patterns for the enamel piece and the frame. I utilise the jeweler's saw to cut these templates; and then I scribe their shapes on the sterling canvass and saw them out. If the sterling is not annealed, I coat both sides of the two pieces with soldering flux (borax and water, or Battern'southward) and anneal them either with a torch or in the kiln. The flux and oxide are removed in a fresh hot pickle of 1:one nitric solution.

Caution!

Recall to add together acid to h2o. Never add together water to acrid. When using acid, it is advisable to wear proper gloves, long sleeves, face mask and safety goggles. Sparex may exist substituted for the nitric solution. If the sterling canvass came annealed, then it only needs to soak briefly in the fresh acid solution to remove all oils. To neutralize the piclde, I add water to the solution followed past the very irksome addition of pocket-size quantities of blistering soda. I wash the pieces thoroughly with fresh water.

Next, I borax-flux the piece and the frame so secure them together with binding wire to be sweat soldered with IT silver solder or tested hard argent solder if I am unable to get the Information technology solder. There should be no solder on the area of the metallic to exist enameled. I bright dip the soldered unit of measurement to remove oxides. A freshly made 1:1 nitric acid solution at room temperature is needed for the brilliant dip. Sparex 2 also works well. Bright dipping is the most important step in the preparation of sterling for transparent enamels. The bright dip eats away a layer of sterling silvery oxide, along with a layer of sterling silver.

The play a trick on is to know when to remove the piece from the acrid earlier irreparable harm is done by extreme acid pitting. This depletion gilding is learned with experience. The soldered piece is placed gently in the acid bath. I use a Pyrex dish with a comprehend for the acid. Bubbles that rise to the surface of the metal are removed periodically past brushing across the piece with a long feather. When the slice is very dark, uniform greyness in virtually places (it will be darkest effectually the solder seam), it is removed from the bright dip bathroom with wooden or plastic tongs, rinsed, neutralized with baking soda, rinsed and cleaned with a glass brush.

I put on rubber gloves to protect my skin from the minute glass threads that break off and tin can stick tenaciously and painfully. I rub the metallic lightly with a drinking glass castor in a circular motion under running water to minimize breakage of the glass brush. The glass brush removes the black residue of oxide that the acid brought to the surface.

At this point, the piece may be domed evenly and slightly with a rawhide mallet past hitting the face of the piece that is held over a steel stake. The findings are soldered on the dorsum with as little IT solder as possible, the firescale removed once again and the piece glass-brushed as before. The piece is at present ready to be enameled.

I utilize 80 mesh, transparent, unleaded enamels. I too buy these enamels in lump form that I grind with a mortar and pestle when I am gear up to use them. I prefer grinding my ain. I wash the enamels, about a tablespoon of each ground color, with distilled water until the h2o is clear. To make the enamels absolutely clean, a few drops of nitric acid are added to a pint of h2o and the enamels are so re-washed in this solution. A final washing with make clean water is required to rinse abroad the acid water. I accept plant that unused moisture enamel powder tends to pause downward and become discolored if stored.

The first coat of enamel is hard fusing to prevent that glaze from bubbling through subsequent coats of medium and soft fusing enamel. I wet pack damp enamels with thin to medium size horsehair brushes. I also use a curved dental tool, the double-ended stainless steel kind that has 1 terminate shaped like a little scoop. The frame, of grade, is not enameled. I moisture pack the back first, add together a few drops of uncut Klyr-Fyre on the enamel and then draw off any of the excess h2o with a piece of tissue.

When the enamel has partially stale or get tacky, the piece is turned over to enamel the forepart side. There I wet pack Thompson's silver flux #757, especially if I programme to use transparent reds or pinks; otherwise, I sometimes wet pack the transparents as the base glaze. Though leaded enamels yield better colors in the reds, I experience safer staying with the unleaded enamels. The slice is placed on a trivet to dry and so fired but to maturity in my 110V electric kiln at about 1350°F. I use a pyrometer, but my sixth sense tells me when to peep in the kiln.

Adjacent comes placing of the cloisonné wires with uncut Klyr-Fyre. For gold wire, I hammer 22K, 16 ga or 18 ga round wire into the rectangular thinness I want. The moisture packing, drying and firing is repeated three to five times until the fired enamel is slightly higher than the frame rim.

Finishing is washed by stoning under h2o, first with a coarse Carborundum stick then a medium-grain one. The grinding continues until all enamel is removed from the frame and the wires, leaving the enamel even. The irksome enamel surface is thoroughly done and drinking glass-brushed to remove whatsoever grains of Carborundum. For a last finish there is a choice. The surface of the enamel may be rubbed with fine paste-wax polish on the fingertips for a matte finish, or the piece may be wink-fired in the kiln for a glossy surface.

If the slice is wink fired, the exposed sterling silver frame will need to have the oxidation removed. This removal is a delicate matter because the enamel should not be scratched. I employ tripoli or white diamond compound on a hard felt buff on a regular polishing motor. I strongly suggest that if you have non used a polishing motor that you either take a jewelry class or have someone knowledgeable show you how to use the equipment. You tin exist hurt desperately if you lot are inexperienced or careless.

Care must be taken not to overheat the piece with the polishing wheel or else the enamel will crack. If y'all remove the piece from the wheel when your fingers become hot, you lot will be safe. When the oxide has been buffed off, a soft flannel vitrify charged with rouge is used for a final shine of the sterling silver frame. If the piece is a pin, the pin stalk is attached to the findings that were soldered on earlier enameling. For minor surfaces and getting into crevices with buffing wheels, I use the Dremel electrical tool following the same progression of buffing wheels with white diamond, tripoli and cherry-red rouge.

For plique-à-jour earrings, I bend and difficult solder sterling silver 14 ga round wire in the shape of a fish or a bird and then flatten the forms with hammers. Sometimes I solder on a spring ring before the depletion gilding. Sometimes I drill a hole for the earwire.

The sterling is prepared for enameling as previously described. After hot pickling and rinsing the frame, information technology is placed on a sheet of mica then on the firing planche. The enamel volition not adhere to the mica. The enamel is wet packed with transparent enamels, dried and fired. This process is repeated until the fired enamel is at the edge of the rim of the frame. The piece is stoned gently nether running water until no enamel is on the frame. The slice is flash fired, and the sterling silverish frame is polished after the mica canvas is removed.

I accept always had a minor fire extinguisher in my studio, but, fortunately, I have never had to apply it. I needs to respect and approach with circumspection acids, electrical equipment and other tools to be able to piece of work safely.

P. Alexa Foley began enameling in 1971. She studied with Joanna Rock, and so persevered with experimenting until she developed her method for enameling on sterling. She spent many years as a successful enamelist, creating cloisonné, champlevé and plique-à-jour enamels. As a realtor with a GRI, she now resides in Maui, Hi where she does some enameling and painting. In June 2001, Alexa received her Yard.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Transformative Learning.