Archive for The Crucible

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

on October 15, 2018

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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.

In categories Tagged with enamel, enameled copper, enameling, enamelist, enamels, experimental, Harlan Butt, Masters Workshop Series, The Crucible, workshops with no comments

Enamels On and Off the Body – with Jennifer Wells

By Judy Stone

on September 19, 2018

with no comments

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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:

In categories Tagged with enamel, enameled copper, enameling, enamelist, experimental, Jennifer Wells, liquid enamel, radical enameling, The Crucible, workshops with no comments

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

By Judy Stone

on May 18, 2018

with no comments

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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:

In categories Tagged with enamel, enameled copper, enameling, experimental, Kathryn Osgood, radical enameling, The Crucible with no comments

Enameling Recycled Steel for Jewelry and Objects – a workshop with Melissa Cameron

By Judy Stone

on September 6, 2017

with no comments

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Are you the magpie always collecting bits of rusty steel on the street? Are there bits of magnetic metal in your studio that you’ve tucked away, swearing that one day you’ll clean them up to make a masterpiece? Bring your rusty recycled bits and bobs to The Crucible in Oakland to learn the skills to turn these into beautiful and unique jewels.

This class will involve diagnosing scrap metals to find their suitability for enameling, proper enamel-on-steel surface preparation, liquid and sifted enamel application, trivet modifications (with titanium wire), and firing tips for steel. It will also include design tips for getting the most out of the enamel parts and to assist each participant in making their found pieces into wearable jewels and beautiful objects.

Attempts to Kill -vitreous enamel, recycled steel tortilla pan, titanium, stainless steel

There is great narrative potential with steel and enamel, owing to steel’s strength and durability over the other enamel metals. It can be used over much larger expanses, while remaining unexpectedly light. Steel is a chameleon, able to be used in luscious, precious looking works and the complete opposite, textured and dramatic displays, all able to be supplemented by the natural decay of steel. These inherent characteristics add richness to the colors and effects of enamel, and make it the ideal contemporary jewelry and object material.

Melissa Cameron was born in Perth, Australian in 1978. (BA interior architecture, Curtin University, Perth, 2002, MFA and metalsmithing, Monash University, Melbourne, 2009) She relocated to Seattle in 2012.

Melissa’s works have been exhibited worldwide and are in several prestigious collections. She has participated in enamel residencies in the UK and Germany and the Penland Winter Residency in the US and her pieces are featured in Jewel Book, Art Jewelry Today 3 and Lark Books’ 500 Silver Jewelry Designs, as well as the upcoming Tales from the Toolbox: Narrative Jewellery, edited by Mark Fenn. She is the recipient of multiple grants from the Australia Council for the Arts and a Fellowship grant from Artist Trust in Seattle. She has presented papers at many conferences and symposia. Her writing appears on Art Jewelry Forum. She currently serves on the Metalsmith Magazine Editorial Advisory Committee.

Melissa regularly teaches workshops in Seattle, and was one of two featured enamelists teaching and presenting at the Enamel Guild Northeast Conference in 2015.

She recently won a best of show award for her pieces in the 2017 Alchemy 4 exhibition sponsored by the Enamelist Society.

Workshop Hours:

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

Cost: $425 plus $20 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:

Register Now

In categories Tagged with enamel, enamel on steel, enameled steel, enamelist, industrial enameling, liquid enamel, Melissa Cameron, porcelain enamel, radical enameling, recycled steel, The Crucible with no comments

Quick and Dirty: Garbage Can Kilns and Sewn Foil Vessels – a workshop with Ana Lopez

By Judy Stone

on July 5, 2017

with no comments

Register Now – Deadline extended until June 28

This workshop breaks down the need for expensive equipment or even a stationary studio. Participants will learn how to build their own low-tech, portable, torch-fired kilns from metal garbage cans. This system can be scaled to allow for the firing of large pieces without having access to a big electric kiln. We will also be making some quick vessels from copper foil using common cold connections such as sewing and rivets, then applying liquid-form enamel and firing them in our kilns. This workshop has the potential to expand access to enameling for those who are not ready to make the financial commitment to a large kiln. The immediacy of the vessel techniques provides a means of volumetric construction for those who may not have access to forming tools. Both the kiln and vessels support an immediacy of making, that is not often associated with the preciousness and labor-intensive experience of fine enameling. Artists who do not consider themselves to be enamelists may be attracted to this less demanding entry point. All skill levels welcome.

Ana M. Lopez is a metalsmith, educator and decorative arts scholar. Her creative work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is the author of the reference book Metalworking Through History: An Encyclopedia, published in the Spring of 2009 by Greenwood Press, as well as numerous other scholarly articles. She organized the 2007 international biennial exhibition of the Enamelist Society, chaired the 2010 Education Dialogue for the Society of North American Goldsmiths annual conference, served as a Beta Site Testing Faculty for the craft textbook Makers: A History of American Studio Craft, served as juror for the 2016 Materials Hard & Soft national exhibition and has lectured extensively on her own work. She holds an MFA in Metalsmithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and an MA in the History of American Decorative Arts from The Smithsonian Associates and Parsons School of Design. She is currently Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Metalsmithing & Jewelry at the University of North Texas where she also teaches The History of Craft.

Technical Article_ “A Large Scale Torch-Fired Enameling Kiln” by Ana Lopez – Society of North American Goldsmiths

Find out about how Ana Lopez came to design and build (and fail and build and fail and build and then build again) a large, torch-fired enameling kiln. This article appeared in a 2013 SNAG news blog.