Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Painting With Fire ( Learning how to torch fire enamel)

I received my Painting With Fire torch enameling kit in the mail yesterday and had so much fun learning the immersion technique to add color to my metals. Here are a few pics of the results. I am still getting the hang of it so most of these are mess-ups in one way or another.

Group shot of some of the beads that the kit came with. I think they are lovely despite the flaws!




I had these bead caps already and they were so tough to get the enamel to adhere. They were an antique brass finish and it took forever to get them to this point.  Maybe it was the fake antique brass finish that made them so hard to enamel.





This is a simple copper disc that I stamped with a bird and then enameled with the transparent enamel that the kit came with. I love the sheen of blue that combines with the deep red of the copper. When you tilt the disc at certain angles it looks iridescent. What a totally unique color surprise! I hope I can do it again. I stamped the bird to see if i could see it well enough through the transparent enamel. It shows up nicely here but is not quite as noticeable in real life. I am very happy with the evenness of the enamel on this one.



And then I made a pair of enameled copper earrings in the robin's egg blue opaque enamel. I love the coloring of these. It is unfortunate that the one on the left had the enamel burned a bit by putting it too far down in the flame. I did this while re-heating the piece trying to get the disc off the mandrel. It is not as noticeable as the pictures shows so I will keep these for myself and start on a new pair for the shop.

3 comments:

  1. I just found your stuff on the local Pgh/etsy - WOW - I love what you make. So inspiring!! You are so talented...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi! Thank so much for the compliment and for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with Kelley and I'm hoping I get $ back on my taxes this year so I can purchase a couple of your butterfly wing necklaces!!

    ReplyDelete