Granular Spray, Sgraffito & Watercolor Enamel with Alisa Looney (online)

Expand your artistic tool kit by learning to sgraffito with ease in liquid enamel, and no more chipping! We will work on pre-enameled steel, adding layers of glass with granular spray, sgraffito and watercolor techniques to create colorful, custom surface treatments.

Join Alisa Looney as she shows us how to use spray application to achieve a buttery smooth surface and create extremely detailed sgraffito designs. Alisa will show you how to add color with watercolor enamels on top of your sgraffito for a rich, layered, and colorful effect!

Design, cut and prepare pre-enameled steel for enameling. Copper shapes can also be used. Learn to apply white liquid enamel with the granular spray technique, resulting in a powdered finish that allows you to sgraffito (scratch) clean lines with ease and control when making marks, textures and/or drawings into the surface. Experiment with several sgraffito tools to create varied line qualities and thicknesses in mark making such as cross hatching, stippling, brushing and combing. This technique opens avenues for the freedom to work in any virtually any style: loose and expressive or detailed and precise. After firing the white layer, you will add depth and color by painting with Watercolor Enamels. Appropriate kiln-firing temps and techniques for each layer will be covered. You can expect to complete a series of small panels and jewelry elements during this workshop. Live demos and instruction in four separate three-hour zoom sessions will allow plenty of time to practice between sessions.

ALL LEVELS WELCOME! Prior enameling experience is recommended. Kilns are required for this workshop.

REGISTER HERE!

Best known for her award winning outdoor sculptures, Alisa Looney has exhibited in the U.S. and Canada. Her work is in a multitude of private and public collections, including Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, WA, and several U.S. cities in the Northwestern United States. Her enamel on steel sculptures have been exhibited in The Enamelist Society’s International Biennial Exhibitions: Alchemy 4 & 5, and published in The Art of Fine Enameling. Alisa expresses her ideas through sculpture, dance, painting and enameling in her Bend, OR, studio that she shares with her husband, woodblock printer Wade Womack. She fell in love with metal arts as a silver smith in her early years, received her BFA in Design from Boise State University in 1983 and began welding in 1998. Alisa returned to Idaho in 2010 to study enameling with her past BSU Professor Emeritus, John Killmaster. This created the opportunity for her to merge metal sculpture and narrative imagery into what she considers her most precious work to date. With John’s blessing, Alisa teaches these enameling techniques in her studio and is currently developing online classes for enamellists near and far. https://alisalooney.com

Workshop Hours:

Saturday and Sundays 10 AM to 1PM Pacific Time

June 19, 20, 26, and 27, 2021

Cost: $375

Materials List: Provided after registration

Registration: Maximum of 15

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

In categories Tagged with Alisa Looney, enamel on steel, enameled copper, enameling, enamelist, liquid enamel, online workshop, sgraffito, spray enamel, watercolor enamel, workshop with no comments

Enamel Oddities – a workshop with Keith Lewis

By Judy Stone

on November 15, 2019

with no comments

THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL.
Email to be put on the waitlist.

This 3-day workshop will feature a number of somewhat unusual enameling techniques that are straightforward and simple, but which significantly expand the expressive potential of enameling. We will begin with a brief overview of basic painted enamel techniques including drawing directly onto enamel, the use of watercolor enamels, the preparation of enamel paints from raw oxides, the use of lusters, and other methods of painting.

After that we will explore four rendering methods in detail:

The firing of graphite drawings into enamel, producing highly detailed and delicate images. We will learn how to prep the enamel for the pencil marks; how to blend, shade and use graphite washes; and how to build up layers and use overglazing in combination with painting techniques. As an alternative to kiln-firing we will learn a simple method of torch-firing that maximizes image clarity.
The use of reflective glass beads (used on airport runways) to create unexpected optical effects. Demos will include the use of various sized beads, compatible enamel undercoats and the complex optical interactions that can be created.
The use of synthetic aventurine (goldstone) to produce enamels that sparkle, a historical method virtually unknown in contemporary enamel circles.
The application of delicate sgraffito drawings in gold leaf, a technique derived from Roman glass portrait rondels and adapted for enamels. Demos will focus on the crucial aspects of surface preparation and precise firing conditions that are necessary to achieve the effect.

Keith Lewis received his BS in Chemistry from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) in 1981 and his MFA in Jewelry & Metalsmithing from Kent State University (Kent, OH) in 1993. He has been teaching at Central Washington University since 1994, where he is currently a Distinguished Professor. His jewelry deals with issues of sexual identity, memory, loss, and the notion of jewelry as a transportable polemic. His work has been widely published and shown both nationally and internationally, and is represented in a number of significant public and private collections, including the Tacoma Art Museum, The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, The Rotasa Foundation (CA), The Museum of Arts and Design, The Smithsonian Institution, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) and on the Metalsmith magazine Editorial Advisory Board.

Workshop Hours:

Friday-Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM , with meal breaks at Silvera Jewelry School

Cost: $595 + $35 materials fee

Materials List: Provided upon registration or when ready

Registration: Limited to 9

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.