Saturday, July 23, 2016

Three Days!

Wow!
Where did summer go?
Seems like I just blinked my eyeballs and I got three days left before going back to work!
Boy.
Actually, I'm sort of looking forward to going back.
Nothing more fulfilling than bossing around little slaves all day long.
I mean teaching students.
So anyways, what have I been doing all summer long?
Doing that jewelry thing:



















I've been trying my hand at some cloisonné, in French it means frustrating.
I ordered some silver plate and wire and some enamels:



















The enamels I believe are just some crushed glass.
Or something.
Anyways, you use the wire to make your outlines and then fill in all the negative space with the enamels.
The trick is what designs to do.
Postcard:



















I just wanted to try something simple.
The wire is held in place with a clear coat. The enamels are heated to oh about 1450 F before they melt and smooth over.
Now for some color:



















Voila!
Le Diamond  Tete!
That's actually just the first 'coat.'  The glass settles and most times you need to a couple three four applications to fill out the space.
Anyways, you get the idea.
I've also been doing some rings, more on that later.
Now its like three days to go and I  need to get my room in order.
So off I go.