Make your jewellery stand out from the crowd by adding a palette of beautiful permanent colours to stunning effect! Come and learn the special techniques for successful use of modern transparent vitreous enamels over fine silver, on this two-day Enamelling on Fine Silver course which includes silver and enamelling materials worth a whopping £40 per student.
Forget traditional opaque enamelling on copper of the sort popular in the 1970s - with this course, you'll learn how to achieve clear depths of jewel-like colours through which the underlying fine silver textures can be seen. Yummy!
Taught by Sarah Jane Whittaker MCSJ Dip PMC and Sussex Guild jeweller and enameller Amanda Zoe (see Our tutors), over just one weekend you will learn the individual steps needed to produce modern enamelled fine silver jewellery, using fabulously flexible precious metal clay and transparent coloured jewellery enamels in an array of transparent colours including blues, greens, teals, browns, greys and lilacs.
This course is suitable for all levels, including total beginners and students with considerable experience of traditional silverwork and/or precious metal clay. Please note that if you are a complete beginner, your tutors will guide you towards the simplest projects (such as the stud earrings shown here), and will be on hand to assist you. More experienced students will be encouraged to design their own projects with the tutor's advice.
Techniques covered:
- Designing and making metal clay jewellery 'blanks' with cells that will take enamels correctly
- Hot connecting considerations when enamelling
- Firing, cooling and burnishing metal clay for enamelling
- Preparing metal clay blanks for enamelling
- Use of enamelling solder
- Washing enamels fro optimum clarity of colours
- Wet-packing
- Dry sifting
- Grinding back
- Soldering on enamelled pieces will also be discussed and demonstrated by the tutor
The course fee includes:
- two full days' tuition (10am-5pm with 1 hour's break for lunch)
- a choice of top quality transparent jewellery enamels
- the use of all tools needed
- enamelling solder needed for your projects
- 25g PMC3 or Art Clay (which you will use to make special fine silver enamelling blanks to turn into jewellery).
Additional PMC3 or Art Clay, and sterling silver findings (jump rings, clasps, brooch backs, chains, keyrings etc) are available to purchase at reasonable cost from your tutor during the course, if needed.
Why not make yourself a colourful pendant and some enamelled stud earrings, like the enamelling beginner who made the sample pieces shown here? Or create enamelled charms for a charm bracelet, or an enamelled brooch? The choices are endless!
Places are strictly limited on this intensive, fun and creative course, so to avoid disappointment, don't delay your booking.
