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I hope you find this useful!
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Since 1976, I have been designing and making cloisonné jewelry in my California studio. The techniques I use are primarily a result of trial and error. After thousands of pieces and as many mistakes, I have a narrow but proven approach. I hope that you will find a tidbit of information here that will aid you in the pursuit of your enameling challenges. The fusion of glass and gold have never lost their attraction for me. I continue to be captured by the magic of the medium...
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Light Background Tips
If I am working on a piece with a very light background, for example opal white, I apply one to three thin layers of the opal white in only the background area, leaving the other cells empty. In this way, I am able to completely seal the wirework to the base and prevent migration of the darker colors into the background. I then do a few layers of the remaining cells until the depth of the enamel is even overall. I can then safely proceed enameling the entire piece in between each firing. Please note that when I use the term "layer", my meaning is to pack the enamel and fire after each layer.
*I should mention that if you use the above techniques, you should be aware that a wire will sometimes be dragged down into the cell that is filled to a higher level. The surface tension of molten glass is enormous and is often the cause of wires moving during firing.
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Dark Background Tips
If I am working on a piece with a black (or dark) background. I enamel everything except the background for one to three layers. Once the wirework is sealed to the base, I do one layer with all cells covered including the dark background and fire. This layer requires acute attention to detail as any sloppiness will be permanently fired into the piece. I then continue to enamel leaving the dark background blank until the interior cells are complete. The background can now be safely added in several layers. This may seem like an obvious procedure to some but I spent years painstakingly applying opaque black next to light colors on every single layer!
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I should mention that if you use the above techniques, you should be aware that a wire will sometimes be dragged down into the cell that is filled to a higher level. The surface tension of molten glass is enormous and is often the cause of wires moving during firing.
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Drilling out Blemishes
If I should happen to get a speck of something fired into the wrong spot, I use a small diamond drill with a Foredom to remove the blemish. Remember to do this wet and be careful not to hit a wire with the drill! Glass brush under running water to clean before resuming the enameling process.
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How do I get those Reds?
If I desire a transparent red (or pink) to be it's brightest, I will use a very thin layer of light purple on the first layer. I use fine silver as my base and these colors will react to the silver causing a muddy effect. Sometimes the thin layer of flux that holds the wires in place is not an adequate separation of these sensitive colors from the silver.
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Parallel Wires Suck
· I often design pieces that have two long lines of wire that run parallel and are less than a millimeter apart. These two wires will attempt to suck together and adding enamel between them only makes the problem worse due to surface tension. I use two tricks to help me in this situation. First, I use a continuous piece of wire to create these parallel lines and second, during the first layer I drop tiny gold balls between the two wires to help hold them apart. The diameter of these balls should equal the distance between the two wires.
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Blotting
After wet packing a layer, the piece should be dry before you put it into the kiln. I use a square of unscented white toilet paper folded into a square to blot out excess moisture. Lay it over the piece and pat gently. I find that impurities are suspended in the water and will be drawn out at this time. Never reuse this little blotter as it will have grains of enamel stuck to it. (You didn't really want to see a picture of Toilet Paper did you?)
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Pattern for Foil Cutting
I use foil very sparingly and generally only in single cells for special effects. To cut the foil to fit a cell: After the wirework is fired into place, I lay a small sheet of tracing paper over it and do a rubbing (gently!) with the side if a pencil lead. This will give me a pattern to use to cut a very accurate foil piece for a cell. I glue the foil into place with Klyrfire and fire it in without adding enamel to any parts of the piece. Once it is fired into place, the enameling may be resumed. (In this piece, the foil is only in the tail)
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Gold Shot under the Enamel
If I want gold balls under the surface of the enamel, I will wetpack a layer and place the balls by pushing them into the enamel grains. It is my experience that silver balls will sometimes cause stress cracks in the piece as silver expands and contracts more than gold.
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Gold Shot on Surface
If I want gold balls on the surface of the enamel, I complete my enameling and grind the piece. Using a diamond drill bit, I make depressions on the surface to place the gold balls into and refire to fuse them into place.
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Moriage
I often include the "moriage" technique in my pieces. This is when sections of my design are raised in relief by adding extra layers of enamel. The result is gem-like and I particularly like the way the light catches in these areas. After grinding the piece and before the final firing, I add small mounds of enamel within individual cells. Care must be taken to keep the wire free of enamel grains. Upon firing, the mounds of enamel will become molten and create a bulge like a dewdrop within a cell. This application can be repeated for additional relief.
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Cracking: Thermal Stress
Cracks appearing in a finished piece used to be a common topic of discussion. Fortunately, I have found that the quality of the leaded Japanese enamels has virtually eliminated this problem for me. I am referring to thermal stress related cracking caused by incompatible enamels or enamels that expand and contract at different temperature and rate than the fine silver base. If you are experiencing cracking and are using Japanese enamels and 26 gauge fine silver base with 24K gold wires, look to your counterenamel. It is sure to be the cause of your problem.
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Warpage
If you are working on a larger piece and warping occurs, you can push it around as soon as it is out of the kiln. This is what I do. I use an antique iron (not electric, but the kind our great-grandmothers heated in the coals). I place it on the top of my kiln to warm it up. Meanwhile, on the last firing before grinding, I place my piece on a sheet of mica supported by a metal firing rack. When the firing is complete, I remove the rack from the kiln and set it on a large ceramic tile, pull the mica and piece unto the ceramic tile and gently press the iron onto the top of the piece. You will be surprised at how little pressure this requires. Timing is everything. The back of the piece will suffer so be aware of that if you had planned to have the back exposed in the finished piece. I then grind and do the final firing as usual. It generally will hold it's new shape through this firing.
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Bigger Pieces
My work is generally .5-2 inches in diameter. I fire for 70 seconds at 1500 degrees. On a larger piece, I lengthen the firing time but keep the heat the same.
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Not Too Hot!
If you fire too long or too hot your enamel will slope up the wires. I usually try to err towards underfiring rather than let this happen.
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Viva Paper Towels
This may seem like a small thing but I like white Viva paper towels the best. I also discard the first few and last few towels on a roll as they have glue on them and will cause cloudiness to appear on your piece if that glue gets on it before a firing. Likewise for the toilet paper. This was a disaster for me a few times some twenty years ago!
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Don't Pile on the Flux!
I try to plan out my pieces so that I will be adding colored transparents in subsequent layers and letting the color deepen in intensity throughout the development of the piece. This is opposed to reaching the desired color at half full and filling up the cell with flux. While time saving, the resulting brilliance of the piece will be compromised.
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