The primary reason designer Amy Roper Lyons of Summit, New Jersey, began working in enamels is fairly black and white: her jewelry needed color. “My first line was made of sterling with other non-precious materials,” she says. “It was…
While Limoges, France was celebrating its 200th anniversary as the city of the “Arts of Fire” this year, July and August will also hold the 10th international Biennial of Enamel exhibiting some of the most exciting new enamelwork…
It is a rare and most welcome event when a technical innovation is accompanied by an esthetic revelation. This is the core with Jamie Bennett’s new work, a series of brooches, whose electroformed armature is covered with what…
When I asked him who Kenneth Bates is, he laughed and replied “a simple dirt farmer from New England.” However, underneath his country boy smile, he’s a driving creative force. As a child, he had his own special spots in the…
Everyone has long seen gems wrapped in small wire cages with hanging devices, and more recently, the Dichroic glass pendants with their caressing wire sculpture made into a bail for hanging on a chain or neck ring. They do provide a light weight…
Editor’s Note: Terry’s Retrospective Exhibition had more than 30 enamels. The Retrospective Catalog has 26 pages with 31 illustrations. There are 14 enamels depicted (some of the enamels are as large as 17 x 14 inches). The…
Gallery 21, an all-white exhibition space in Spanish Village, San Diego, California, became home to the enamel exhibition, RADIANCE from October 3-25,2009. This square room, with a bank of windows on one wall, was transformed by Studio 5’s…
“Bright colors we can find only in nature, quality craftsmanship that will outlast the seasons, and a promise to do my part with the gifts I’ve been given” – Patsy Croft, Alohi Lani Designs, Orange Beach, Alabama.…
My affair with precious metals began while working with my father a talented jeweler who worked with spring movement. He once made a life-sized rose in gold that would bloom. It weighed a pound and a half, and a pull of a green gold leaf on the stem…
One of the main tasks of the International Enamel Studio is to save our 1000 year-old enamel art and techniques and the other one is to help young talented people. Laszlo Gyegyadesz, director organizes courses for talented young people. Endre…
The exhibition, mounted at the Royal Academy in London in collaboration with the Benaki Museum in Athens, incorporates over 240 objects, spanning 1000 years of Byzantine artistic production. The pieces with enamels are thus shown within…
While living in Little Neck, NY, during the mid-sixties, I took an enameling class at the local YWHA. It took a while for me to overcome my fear of the open kiln, but in time it was alright, so much so, that after a few courses my instructor, Jeanette…
Cloisonné is a French word that means ‘to be confined,’ ‘to be cloistered.’ Traditionally, the cloisonné technique consists in making the contour of a picture by fixing very fine metallic threads on the piece…
In 1987, some drawings I had made were exhibited (about 30 etchings) in Szolnok, Hungary. A friend of mine, László Bokros, a painter, organized and directed the exhibition and when he saw my etchings, he shouted, “You have to enamel.”…
For the last couple years the W.W. Carpenter Enamel Foundation has held “Intro to Enameling” workshops that are designed to walk beginning enamel students through multiple procedures in a short amount of time. Three projects…
The innovative Medieval Galleries, occupying a complete wing of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, have now been open for several months. There was extensive initial press coverage and a great surge of visitors: but with such spacious…
In the late 20s, a small enamel tray, made in China, introduced us to the word cloisonne. The material looked like the granite ware in our kitchen. Obviously the wires were used to keep the colors separated. Then, cloisonne was enamel with wires…
An island in the eastern Mediterranean, with a history of more than 8000 years, Cyprus was one of the earliest producers of copper in the world, had a flourishing metal industry and during the “Golden Age” of Cyprus, the island enjoyed a high…
Who has not dreamt of that nobly shaped chalice, enameled all over with immaculate transparents… maybe just one fine gold line winding around its outside… so elegantly understated, so utterly simple… That is poetry. It would neither…
Susan Demski and I have developed a cloisonne technique for our jewelry, which ranges in size from 1/4″ dia. to about 4″ x 5″. Our pieces are enameled on fine silver with gold cloisonne wire and then set in karat gold. For the enameling, we use 22…
In the conditions of world globalization, a big part of modern mankind realized how important human ties are to their roots. Once neglected traditions today acquire vital importance. People search for and go back to old traditions, create…
I have been making my cloisonne beads since 1996 in a variety of methods with fine silver and wires of fine silver or 24K gold for the designs. My method of fusing two domed halves of fine silver requires fewer metalsmithing skills than the other…
Merry-Lee Rae has been making jewelry since 1966 when she joined her father in the garage while he dabbled in metal arts. In 1976 she fell in love with enameling, and her life took a turn from hard-core academics to a relentless, obsessive pursuit…
When Joseph Trippetti returned from the Army in 1946, he studied for three years at Philadelphia College of Art and the fourth year at Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts in England, where he majored in silversmithing. He has been enameling…
After you learn to apply enamels by sifting, wet packing, brushing on crackle and firing the base coats, you are ready for some of the simple techniques that require only a feel for color. You can design a piece by repeating one technique or learning…
Ben Caldwell is a painter, copper and silver smith, musical instrument builder, and inventor. He trained at the Studio School of New York under Charles Cajori, an abstract expressionist who exhibited with William de Kooning in the 1960s.…