Technical Information
The process of enamelling has been practiced with little change for thousands of years, some of the oldest items discovered are six gold rings dating from 1300BC, which were found in a Mycenaean tomb at Kouklia, Cyprus in 1952.Each item I make has been hand-crafted from the best quality materials and, with care, will also become heirlooms of the future.
Enamelling is the process of fusing glass to metal through the application of heat. It is exacting and time consuming work and each piece can often require six or seven firings in the kiln before its final polish.
Enamel can be used as glass rod or lumps but is most often ground in a pestle and mortar to the texture of sugar. It can also be ground very fine, like baking soda, mixed with lavender oil and used like paint; all these techniques are used in my work.
To ensure there is equal tension on each side of the metal (to stop the metal from warping and to keep the enamel stable) a ‘counter enamel’ is often used on the rear of the work. Traditionally, this would have been a mixture of left over enamels, however, to enhance the quality and beauty of my work I use true colours on both the front and the back often creating a second design on the back to produce a piece that can be worn either way.