Archive for experimental – Page 2

New Approaches to Cutting Precious Metal Foil Shapes and Enamel Layering Over Foil – with Harlan Butt

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This  3-day Masters workshop, which is the third in this year’s new Master Workshop Series Butt gives some insight into new approaches of preparing precious metal foils for enameling.

Cutting silver foil by hand for enameling is great but it is difficult to cut precise delicate shapes. Commercial paper punches can be used on foil but there are only a small number of shapes available and many of those are not very aesthetically interesting. With the Ecliips2 DYI Electronic Cutter the kinds of shapes that can be cut in foil is almost limitless. Nearly any silhouette that can be copied, downloaded or drawn on a computer software like Photoshop can be cut out in silver foil. These shapes can then be applied and fired onto an enameled surface and transparent colors can be layered over them. Once the process is understood and the technique accomplished the artist has a whole new way of looking at design possibilities using enamel.

Basic enameling experience and some experience with Photoshop would be helpful but not necessary.

Harlan W. Butt is an artist with over 40 years of experience working in metal and enamel who specializes in making vessels inspired by the human relationship to wilderness and the natural environment.
Harlan is a Regents Professor of Art at the University of North Texas where he has taught since 1976. He is past President of the Enamelist Society, past President of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and a Fellow of the American Crafts Council.
His work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in the permanent collections of the Enamel Arts Foundation in Los Angeles, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Art & Design in New York City , the Mint Museum of Art & Craft in Charlotte, NC, the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Denali National Park Visitor Center in Alaska, the Houston International Airport, the Wichita Center for the Arts, the National Gallery of Australia, the Cloisonné Enamelware Fureai Museum.

Workshop Hours:

Monday – Wednesday 10 AM to 5 PM , with meal breaks at the Crucible in Oakland,  CA

Cost: $505 plus $35 materials fee

Materials List: Provided upon registration or when ready

Registration: Limited to 10

Refund Policy: No refunds unless your workshop position can be filled by another person.

Lodging, Meals, Transportation:

Coming from out of town? Check AirBnB, Priceline, and other discounted online lodging sources, The Center will try help you make your stay comfortable and stress free while you are a workshop participant.

Enamels On and Off the Body – with Jennifer Wells

 

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In this workshop we will use wire and a variety of enameling techniques to create two very different kinds of work: unique sculptural jewelry, and whimsical wall pieces.

For the jewelry, we will create complex dimensional pieces by pairing simple backings with enameled shapes of fine iron wire that we have formed and then enameled with liquid enamel. This process, which Wells has perfected for her own work, makes striking jewelry, as the lines of the enameled iron wire contrast beautifully with the monochrome colors and shapes of the flat pieces.

For the wall pieces, we will focus on line and color to create works full of color and subtle complexity. Working on flat copper sheet, we will make lines by using sgraffito in liquid enamel and pencil drawing on enamel applied to the surface, and achieve complex color layering through multiple sifting techniques and painting with watercolors and china paints. We will make frames for this work by bending iron wire in imaginative designs and configurations.  

In addition to several different enameling techniques, this workshop will explore solutions to the presentation of enamels, using wire.  How can we set flat enamel elements and place them on the human body? How can we frame a flat enameled piece wall so that the frame enhances what the enameled piece has to say?

Enameling techniques that will be taught:            

  • Using liquid enamel to coat iron wire
  • Sgraffito through liquid enamel
  • pencil drawing on an enameled surface
  • painting with watercolor enamels
  • sifting to create complex layering

A basic understanding of enameling is required.

Jennifer Wells completed her M.F.A in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design in 2010; afterwards she spent a year at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts as a resident artist, and also completed shorter-term residencies at Pocosin Arts and the Jentel Foundation. She has been a summer assistant for Haystack Mountain School of Craft and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Until recently shehas taught Jewelry and Enameling in Italy with East Carolina University’s Italy Intensives program headed by Linda Darty.

Workshop Hours:

Wednesday – Friday, 10 AM to 5 PM , with meal breaks at the Crucible in Oakland,  CA

Cost: $425 plus $30 materials fee

Materials List: Provided upon registration or when ready

Registration: Limited to 10

Refund Policy: No refunds unless your workshop position can be filled by another person.

Lodging, Meals, Transportation:

Coming from out of town? Check AirBnB, Priceline, and other discounted online lodging sources, The Center will try help you make your stay comfortable and stress free while you are a workshop participant.

 

Large Scale Experimental Enameling- a workshop with John Killmaster

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Explore new innovative methods working in drawing, painting and shaping water and oil enamels fired on steel with John Killmaster, one of the most respected enamel masters working with large scale steel. Explore silkscreening, sand-enameling, granular spray, crayon, watercolor and mixed media on large-scale steel panels. We will be hammering steel and spot welding it into sculptural shapes. Other experimental possibilities: modular wall and free standing outdoor sculpture.

No prior enameling skills required.

This 4-day workshop will inaugurate the Center for Enamel Art’s new large scale workspace within KVO Industries in Santa Rosa, CA. It is also the 2nd in our Masters series of workshops .

John Killmaster ( MFA ’69, Cranbook Academy of Art) is an artist working in several mediums: painting, clay, and porcelain enameling. He lives in Boise, ID.  He was Professor of Art at Boise State University (1970-97). His work has been exhibited worldwide and is in many private collections. His work has been recognized with  the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Enamelist Society, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts from the State of Idaho and as a grantee for the Western States Arts Federation.
​Killmaster’s personal goal has been to gain recognition of the art form of enameling to be considered a “fine art”, along with glass, ceramics, painting, sculpture, printmaking  drawing and photography, and architecture.

This 4-day workshop will inaugurate the Center for Enamel Art’s new large scale workspace within KVO Industries in Santa Rosa, CA. It is also the 2nd in our Masters series of workshops .

Workshop Hours:

Friday-Monday, 10 AM to 5 PM at KVO Industries in the Center for Enamel Art dedicated space.
Optional facilitated evening work hours will be available for an additional fee.

Cost: $495 plus $40 materials fee, additional optional fee of $65 for three 2 1/2 hr. work sessions July 6-8.

Materials List: Provided upon registration or when ready

Registration: Limited to 10

Refund Policy: No refunds unless your workshop position can be filled by another person.

Lodging, Meals, Transportation:

Coming from out of town? Check AirBnB, Priceline, and other discounted online lodging sources, The Center will try help you make your stay comfortable and stress free while you are a workshop participant.

An Evening with John Killmaster- Thurs. July 5th

6 PM – 4 Maxwell Ct., Santa Rosa, CA
Free and open to the public – Light refreshments will be provided

The Center for Enamel Art invites you to attend an informative evening with John Killmaster who will be inaugurating our new Annex inside KVO Industries in Santa Rosa with his workshop July 6-9.

John has a lifetime of knowledge and experience to share. In this presentation he will be showing slides of the types of techniques he will be teaching in his workshop plus images of his work as he has developed as an educator, master enamel artist and painter.

Enamels: Exploring Texture, Color and Form-a workshop with Kathryn Osgood

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This 3-day workshop is about textured surfaces and three dimensional form in enameling. Texture is built through experimentation including sugar-firing, overfiring and firing on to an enameled surface with non-traditional material such as cubic zirconia, sand, reflective glass beads, frit, and glass microbeads. We will move beyond the traditional glossy enamel surfaces to create intriguing tactility.

To explore the use of vitreous enamels on dimensional surfaces the metal forming will involve fold forming, shell forming, die forming, and corrugating. We will create color through layered opaques and transparents, liquid enamels, silver foil, graphite, and enamel paints. Solutions for setting enameled pieces will be discussed.

All levels welcome.

Kathryn Osgood is associate professor at College of The Abermarle in Manteo, NC. She received her MFA from East Carolina University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is featured in several publications: The Art of Enameling, Contemporary Enameling: Art and Technique, 500 Earrings, 500 Enameled Objects,  and Metalsmith magazine.

 

 

Workshop Hours:

Friday – Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM , with meal breaks

Cost: $425 plus $30 materials fee

Materials List: Provided upon registration or when ready

Registration: Limited to 12

Refund Policy: No refunds unless your workshop position can be filled by another person.

Lodging, Meals, Transportation:

Coming from out of town? Check AirBnB, Priceline, and other discounted online lodging sources, The Center will try help you make your stay comfortable and stress free while you are a workshop participant.