Enamelled hearts

I had a marathon session in the kitchen last week, cutting out hearts, filing/sanding them and then enamelling. A bit late for Valentine Day sales, but here they are...


Enamelled hearts by Mead Moon, on Flickr

I'm learning a lot here about the way that different colours react with copper and how to apply liquid/painting enamels more effectively.

I think we must be twins Elaine, I just made a red enamelled copper heart the other week. Not as good as yours though, as I've cheated and used the Efco enamel powders. I would love to learn enamelling, I love the glassy look, you don't get that the same with the Efco powders and I always worry about them flaking off. The dots must have been hard to do.
Lisa x

All those hearts must have been a real labour of love.
What kiln did you use?
I bought my SC2 planning to learn enamelling and doing PMC. nearly two years on it just sits unused and un loved in my studio. my one attempt at bronze clay was a failure, they didnt scinter and my one attempt at enamelling ended with black burnt bits of copper.
Nan

nangoose wrote:All those hearts must have been a real labour of love.
What kiln did you use?
I bought my SC2 planning to learn enamelling and doing PMC. nearly two years on it just sits unused and un loved in my studio. my one attempt at bronze clay was a failure, they didnt scinter and my one attempt at enamelling ended with black burnt bits of copper.
Nan

What a pun!

My kiln is an SC2 and I use it for fusing glass, PMC and enamelling so far. Didn't get on with copper clay so can sympathise about the bronze clay. Silver clay is much easier to sinter.

Lisa, The dots are painted on using liquid/painting enamels (a starter kit from Rachel Elliott) so you just need a straightened-out paperclip and a steady hand. I had the first and was able to fake the second with the help of my other hand and a firm surface

Lovely collection Elaine, prefer the single colour ones. Enamelling in my own kiln is something that I have yet to try. Did you have to treat the reds any different to the other colours, I think I have read somewhere that they can be tricky.

Lovely,Elaine. I like those. They'll be gorgeous pendants.

They are fabulous, Elaine. I love the spotty ones.

Thank you for the complements

Lynne, I have had problems with reds and yellows when using the liquid enamels on glass, they usually burn out and either disappear or go brown, but just using them on copper seems to work a lot better. You do need to watch them since they need a slightly lower temperature or less time. Those were done for about 1 to 2 minutes at 785(ish).

Ooh they are dead cute Elaine,