I discovered and began to work with vitreous enamels around in Spring of 2019.
I had no option but to teach myself - a mixture of trial and error (necessary because the enamels I used for the substrate I used, nobody else was using) and a bit of online classes. The niche of enamels is small and most teachers contradict each other - in the end, there is really nothing to do but find your way, just you and your kiln and lots and lots of patience.
This was me with my first kiln, the Prometheus Pro-1. It’s basic but it is possible to achieve anything in it, size is the only limiting factor.
Here I will show you some of my first enamels - most are in private collections, and much like a tattoo artist’s first tattoo, have hopefully a nobility about their errors that older enamellers and future archaeologists might forgive.
Before Enamel…
There were a few years before cloisonne entered my life where my work was focused on metalsmithing techniques and castwork and fabrication. I was still trying to illustrate what then with the colours and lineworks of vitreous enamel became so easy to say.