More Than I Can Chew?

leaf sketch for my pin

Those who know me well... No, scratch that. Those who have a passing acquaintance with me could probably guess that I'm going for a BIG project in my enameling class. It's based on the leaf drawing shown, and I began tonight by starting the process of rolling my own silver foil from sheets of 22 gauge fine silver. I will roll them, texture them, flash them (heat them to bright silver with a torch without burning through them), and then cut one of them into the leaf shape to add to my base. I have an heir and a spare--mostly because I want to roll them finer than the rolling mill will go so I'm doing two (and sheets of paper between and on top and bottom) at a time.

Before I attach the leaf (in foil, not leaf ;-) to the base, I'll prep the base with black enamel and silver leaf (not a leaf shape). Then I'll do a color wash over the leaf (the foil) and follow it up by attaching the silver leaf leaf to the base (whew!). Next come the cloisonné wires, followed by the color layering on the leaf. It's a pretty ambitious project, and I hope to bezel-set it in sterling and make a cloak pin out of it when it's done. I have two days of class let.

Z is for...

Here's what I've done so far--some of the pieces are color samples, some are in-process, and some are finished cloisonné. I also have two sketches I drew today that I want to work from for my first series.

Mostly finished pieces

After

Befor

Unfinished trout sketch