What is Enamel?

Hola. So I didn’t write a blog post yesterday for the second day of blogtober but I have a good reason why.

I am currently in Spain where my partner took part in the 2022 Barcelona Ironman yesterday. Unfortunately, due to the difficult swim conditions and the strong headwind on the bike course he only completed half of the event!

It’s such an achievement to even enter an IronMan so I am very proud of him, and no, you won’t ever catch me doing a triathlon!

For today’s entry I want to tell you more about my enamelling process.

Did you know that enamel powder is actually a very finely ground down form of glass?

I use glass powders in various colours and sift them on to Copper using a range of techniques including stencilling and blending. I begin the process by backing a copper shape with a ‘counter enamel’ which is a powdered enamel in a speckled greenish blue shade, this helps to strengthen the piece of copper and to counter balance the enamel put on the reverse side/ front.

Adding the counter enamel not only makes the piece stronger but also means that when jewellery, such as a pendant, is worn against the skin the copper will not be touching the skin. This ensures the skin will not be marked by a copper stain and the copper will not be exposed to the air so will not discolour/ tarnish.

I’ll tell you more about the processes I use on the front in future posts so watch this space.