How to Enamel Jewelry: Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Techniques 

Thanks Anita, that's very kind!

Thanks Ena, I saw that! For some reason I don't get notified when someone makes a comment...I must look into that and do a few RU-vid tutorials.

Thanks Don and you're very welcome!

Thanks Donita!

Hi Mike, thanks for subscribing. You won't look back if you get a kiln. Make sure to get what is called "batwash" as well. It is basically a powdered substance that you need to add water to so that it has a thin but creamy text (creamier than milk let's say) and then paint it onto the entire inside chamber of your kiln. What it does is protect the floor and walls from drops of liquid enamel that might drip off at the flow stage. If it drips onto the floor of the kiln it is hard to chip it off without damaging the floor. If you have batwash painted on you can chip it off more easily - gently though, without leaving a divot in the floor making the trivets and mesh stands wobbly. Best of luck!

@@GeraldineMurphyEnamel Thanks for the tip Geraldine, batwash is what I would use to clean my batcar before taking it back to the batcave, so it's nice to know it has another use 😂 I tried to order the prometheus Pro 1 mini kiln from cooksons but they said they are hoping for a delivery around the 22nd of June 😭😭 Thanks again and I'll definitely look into the batwash 👍👍😁

Hi Bruce, sorry for the late reply. Those are just steel tweezers that can be purchased from somewhere like Cooksongold.com or HSWalsh, Proops, Rio Grande, Otto Frei etc. It is worth getting two pairs and making one pair blunt - one very pointy and one blunt works well for manipulating wires. Also, it is worth putting your fine wires (they have to be fine silver), into the kiln for a minute or two to anneal them and then they are much easier to form.

Hi Ana, thanks very much. The wire is fused to the enamel not the silver. Basically the wire is so incredibly thin it doesn't need fusing to anything other than the thin layer of transparent enamel. I use a special enamelling glue called Blu-Stick to stick the wires to the fired surface and wait until they are dry. Then add more wires, wait until they are dry and then fire the piece. The enamel will fasten the wires to the surface. Sometimes not all wires are fastened so you have to carefully press them down and either fire the piece again or sift on another thin layer of transparent enamel, fire the piece again and the wires should be fully fused. Then you can get going on adding your colours.

I had the same on my first piece, the guys in the club told me that sometimes colors burn. I guess it's because I wasn't paying much attention to the process so it may have stayed longer in the oven than needed. Also in the club I went they adjust the oven to 850°C. I made a flower of different color in each petal, the ones that went good were colors that I didn't combine, red, yellow, green, blue. But I tried making sub colours from primary colours 😂 and those ones look dark 😂 a red petal went good but another not so that's why I assume I also let it too long in the oven. And always put an enamel layer on the back for 1mm thick piece, that all I learnt after 😂. They told me that if you don't put that enamel layer on the back the colors in the front can crack, and indeed I also had a blue petal cracked on the front 😂😂

Hi Sylvia, yes, I solder on the bail using Eutectic or Hard solder which has a higher melting temperature than the enamel (so that it doesn't run again in the kiln because the bail would fall off). You have to be careful when soldering the bail and I recommend using a thick bail. If you use a thin jump ring for example, it will just melt before the solder reaches the right temperature. So make them pretty thick - use a piece of tube for example As for the wires, yes, there is something called Blue Stic here is the link: www.riogrande.com/product/thompson-enamel-blu-stic-cloison-adhesive-1-oz/119764 It is very sticky so you can water it down with distilled water. You can also use Thompson A3 if there are only a few wires. The Blu Stic is good if you are putting down loads of wires because you can let them dry and then add to them.

Hi Vishal, the red I used in this cloisonné piece was a Japanese Nihon Shippo, Sun Red G704

Thanks Daniel. I use three or four different brands: Schauer, Milton Bridge, Ninomiya, Thompson...they all have their pros and cons. My favourite for this kind of work are Ninomiya I think.

Hi Sylvia, yes, I do various kinds: portraits in enamel and I can do Cloisonne and Champleve pieces also. Did you have an idea in mind? If you go to www.geraldinemurphyenamels.com you'll see more of my work

@@GeraldineMurphyEnamel especially the husky

Hi Shae, thanks for emailing and good question. When I am using sifters to apply powdered enamels I take care in handling them: I always wear a surgical mask - you're probably used to that at this stage with Covid. Enamels are very very light and can "puff" up into the air without you seeing them unless bright sunlight is streaming in and then you can see it. Like you can see dust motes. So I always wear a mask. Also, I tend to work higher up than my table when sifting enamels: instead of sitting on a chair that is the normal height, say, of sitting at the kitchen table, instead I use a higher stool so that my face is much higher. It isn't terribly comfortable but because with enamelling you are getting up every few minutes to fire your piece you generally aren't stooped over for very long. However, with Cloisonné and Champlevé you are working with wet enamel most of the time so there isn't the same level of "puffing" into the air except when start rinsing the enamels, when you put them dry onto the piece (when you are applying the very first layer of dry flux). Othewise they are wet. However you do get little bits that go onto your work surface. I would advise to always wear a mask (but doing this kind of enamelling I don't, I have to admit). Always clear away enamels regardless: never leave your paper or table with enamels on it. I always use wet paper towels to fulling wash down the surface I've been working on. Always! And I use paper towels rather than a cloth because it is too hard to get the little particles out of a cloth. Any cloths I do use in the studio I wash in a bucket when they are dirty instead of the washing machine. That's fine, you'll never be using them on your face (hopefully) so it doesn't really matter. The other thing worth noting is that while unleaded enamels clearly don't have lead in them, and they can be very nice (but sadly not as nice as leaded generally speaking and there isn't the variety of colours), that is not to say that they still shouldn't be used with caution and a mask. They do have other chemicals in them. I wouldn't get too worried about the warnings of child abnormalities etc., that is an extreme case and I doubt if anyone has suffered that badly. There are enamelists around who have never worn masks, have worked with enamels for 50 years while smoking 40 cigarettes a day who have never suffered from anything...! Just take care not to inhale enamels. The other thing is that you can damage your eyesight by looking into the kiln. You can buy special glasses which you wear while opening the kiln but I stopped wearing them when I started wearing spectacles because it was too difficult. I would advise wearing them. But now I just avoid looking into the kiln. Don't do that because it will damage your retinas for sure. Just don't stare at the orange which is fine. I hope this is of help. Don't worry too much and don't let those warnings put you off. Just be careful is my advice!

@@GeraldineMurphyEnamel Thanks so much for your detailed reply Geraldine! I have learned a lot from it. Now I feel more confident working with the materials, knowing how I should handle them. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!

@@shae3457 You're very welcome!

Hi Zoharing, sorry for the late reply. Hmmm...that's strange. What polishing method do you use? Is it the same as me? I basically use three different diamond sanders: rough (red), medium (yellow), fine (white). When I move from the red to the yellow I first dry off the piece completely and hold it up to the light so that I can see if there are any shiny areas. If there are you can mark them with a Sharpie pen of some kind (permanent marker). Then go over those areas again. Rinse in clean water, dry, check again using the light to see if the entire surface is matt - it should be. Then move to the next diagram - yellow - do the same. One thing I'm thinking might be the problem is that you are not using clean enough water. Sand, always with the piece and the diagrit/sandpaper wet and after the water gets cloudy, get clean water. Basically keep changing the water. When you are satisfied with the sanding you can either use extra fine sand paper (like 1000 or 1500 always wet), and then move onto using pumice powder applied and rubbed with thick felt (these buffers can be purchased on Rio Grande). You can keep the matt or satin finish and just polish the silver edges or you can fire the piece one more time and it should appear nice and glassy. Importantly, you MUST rinse the piece under running water and rube with a glass brush - make sure to wear rubber gloves, I didn't once and I had tiny splinters of glass embedded in my fingers for days, it was awful. Look up glass brushes on Rio Grande too - they look like a black rubber cylinder and are made up of millions of thin rods of glass. So rub that on the surface of the piece to take away any grit before firing the piece again.

Hi there, I'm not sure I know what you mean - do you mean do I teach in person? If so, yes, sometimes but not often...

Hi Sylvia, sorry for the late reply. Aww, poor thing. Is he quite old? Were you thinking of a Cloisonné/Champlevé piece like in this video? I'd love to have a look at a photo of your cat to see if it possible - I just did a test piece for a Jack Russell portrait which I can email you if you want to have a look at it - it is head and shoulders basically, in an oval setting.

@@GeraldineMurphyEnamel just found your reply. Would really like that

@@sylviaprudhomme5417 Hi Sylvia, great. I just finished a portrait of a lovely old terrier called Paddy that a man commissioned for his wife's birthday on Monday. Here is my email address: geraldinemurphyenamels@gmail.com and then we can communicate privately.

Thanks Mike, I fully agree! It is hard to compete with work that isn't handmade and a lot of people don't really value handmade work anymore.

Hi Ximena, thanks for getting in touch. The Cloisonné is the bending of the wires to create the enclosed areas in which to put your wet enamel colours. They are made from fine silver, 18kt gold or copper usually. In French, Cloisonné means “partition”. Champleve is where your piece is recessed. In other words, there is a wall around the piece where the enamel sits. If you look at the videos you’ll see that I cut out an outline of my design in fine silver. then I fuse this thin outline (for example, the Luna moth), to a sheet of fine silver and cut out the shape. This piece now has a recessed area and a little wall around. The recessed area is where I can put Cloisonné wires or just put in enamel without wires. This is a very simple method of Champleve: if you were really good with a piercing saw you could cut out a really intricate design instead of using wires - you would create your little walls from your sheet silver instead of wires. The two pieces of fine silver sheet I use are usually 0.8mm thick. So when the piece is fused and ready for the enamelling stage, the outside wall is 1.6mm and the inside area is 0.8mm. I hope this is clear! I think I might do a video explaining this...it will be my next project!

@@GeraldineMurphyEnamel thanks a lot. You explained to me very clearly. greetings from Perú