Why Enamel Steel?

Steel is a very strong and durable material to enamel on in thin gauges. The earrings pictured below were made with 26 gauge enameling iron (a form of low carbon steel). This wouldn’t be possible with copper in that thin of a gauge because it is inherently soft, making it prone to warping and chipping. Making earrings this large and flat in copper would require using 22 gauge at a minimum, and that would make them far too heavy for the average customer.

Only certain types of steel can be successfully enameled. You want to look for low carbon steel, enameling iron or stainless steel. Thompson Enamel sells enameling iron and pre-enameled steel sheets that you can cut with snips or with a jeweler’s saw. If you go this route, please be careful. You are sawing into glass, and it shatters and splinters into the tiniest of pieces. I will typically cover both sides with masking tape, draw the image on the tape and saw. It takes a hot minute and leaves an okay edge. Since you are going to cover it anyway, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Raw steel has to have a ground coat applied to both the front and back before powdered enamels or other colors of liquid enamel can be applied. The ground coat can be found at Thompson Enamel (GC-16), Clay Art Center (RM27 Metal Frit Enamel for Steel by Ferro) or WG Ball (Steel Ground Coat 12559). Kat Cole has been successful in applying colored liquid enamel to raw enameling iron without a ground coat, but she sand blasts it first. This gives the metal a lot of tooth and a varied surface, which makes it much more successful. Since I’m relatively new to this and don’t have a sand blaster, I’m sticking with the ground coat.

If you are interested in learning more about enameling on steel, there are some really great teachers out there, like Kat Cole, Alisa Looney, and Amanda Denison. I have taken classes from all three gals and highly recommend them all. They each offer different techniques for applying enamel and for surface design. Additionally, I found a great article that dives into enameling all different types of steel by Melissa Cameron here. Definitely check it out if you want to pursue enameling steel!

I am very excited to be using steel in my new jewelry. Admittedly, there is a bit of a learning curve, and it’s a bit harder to cut with a jeweler’s saw than copper, but I really love the ability to make things that are thinner and stronger, and consequently more lightweight than their copper counterparts. Please feel free to post your questions or comments. I’m no expert, but I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.

Rules are Meant to Be Broken

There are so many rules in enameling. They’d make your head spin. But, I’ve discovered through trial and error that some rules are meant to be broken. Rules are passed down from one artist to the next and often blindly followed. Some artists like to break the rules, and by doing so, they discover that not everything they learned is true.

Rule #1 - Always start with a clean, oil free piece of copper to enamel

I learned from Ricky Frank that this isn’t always necessary. Now, he’s been enameling a long time, so I figured is must be right. There is always a little bit of fear that goes along with breaking the rules, but I tried it for myself, and he was right. If you think about it, we use Squeege Oil to make enamel adhere to the surface of metal. It’s an oil. It burns out under the torch flame or in the kiln. However, if you are using Klyr Fire to adhere enamel to a curved surface or attempting to coat your metal with liquid enamel, it won’t stick without first cleaning the metal. Another trick I learned from Amanda Dennison, is to rub the surface of your metal with liquid enamel. It breaks the surface tension and allows the liquid enamel to stick to your metal! Other artists, like Jan Harrell, use a surfactant to increase the surface tension, which makes the enamel stick better. This is especially great when you are applying watercolor enamel, acrylic enamel or mason stains to your enamel. Alternatively, you can rub the enamel with a little rubbing alcohol on a paper towel.

Rule #2 - You have to remove all firescale in order for enamel to adhere to copper

This is another misnomer that was demystified by Ricky Frank. All you really need to do is remove loose firescale. Copper will oxidize given the right conditions, despite whether there is a surface of enamel covering it or not. So much time is wasted cleaning firescale from copper prior to enameling. Pickling the metal can cause any enamel that may be on the opposing side to permanently dull. So, give it a try. Leave that firescale and see what happens. You will be pleasantly surprised, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration along the way! The only time I really worry about removing firescale is if I am using transparent enamel directly on a metal surface.

Rule #3 - You have to use eutectic solder when soldering pieces to be enameled

This has been disproved by many artists, including Ann Havel who uses medium solder when enameling. I personally have had issues with my pieces staying soldered when enameling, but as I understand it, that is more of an issue with gravity than the type of solder. When you are enameling post earrings, as an example, it’s best not to have them sticking up in the air. The flow of the enamel and the forces of gravity will pull them over. If they are hanging down, the enamel will hold them in place. Give it a shot. It has worked for me.

Rule #4 - Your edges have to be perfectly filed before you start enameling

This may just be a rule I made for myself in the beginning but I don’t follow it any longer. The reason I don’t follow it any longer is simple. I file my edges between every firing. This may sound excessive, but it really does prevent little flakes of firescale from floating off the edges and landing on the enamel. I use a diamond file perpendicular to the edge and then file from the back at a 45 degree angle to prevent the piece from sticking to the trivet in subsequent firings.

Rule #5 - Decals have to dry overnight before firing

I discovered in my own practice that when I apply decals to enamel, once I have removed as much of the moisture as I can with a soft paper towel they need only about 15 minutes on top of the hot kiln or on a cup warmer before firing. What I do differently is to partially fire them, just until the decal melts to the surface of the enamel (when you hear the poof inside the kiln or after the decal catches fire and turns clear in the torch flame. I remove it from the kiln or torch and carefully prick any bubbles with a sharp needle and then re-fire to maturity. This has been a much more successful method for me in my practice. I have far fewer image break ups and voids in the image this way.

Experimentation is key to learning if what you have been taught all along is the only way to do something. So, don’t be afraid to try new things. Break the rules. You may discover an easier or better way to do something.

Enamel and Etching (Basse Taille) - What a Fun Combo!

I’ve spent a lot of time these days just doodling, trying to get inspired. Like many artists, I have times when the ideas just aren’t flowing, but my doodles keep me creative. Lately, I’ve been thinking about ways to incorporate them into 2D art and my jewelry.

This week, I experimented with etching my drawings in copper. I was hoping to enamel over the etchings with opaque colors, but the etchings weren’t quite deep enough to accomplish what I had in mind. So, I pulled out the transparents and started playing.

Transparent enamels can be very tricky. I haven’t done much with them for that reason. It’s a whole other ball of wax. Firing temps and times are so different than opaques. I had some successes and some half successes. I wouldn’t call them total failures. I stuck with one color to see what I could come up with and adjusted time and temp with each attempt. I even pulled out the enamling Bible - The Art of Enameling by Linda Darty. With the info there, I now know that I need to fire lower and longer to prevent the edges from burning (though I like the look of it on the larger oval).

I want to set the large oval with a straight sided bezel with six tabs. I’m not sure yet what the bail will look like, but I want to incorporate a small green stone in it. It will likely hang on a snake chain for substance. Here are a few examples of my attempts at Basse Taille Enameling.

Basse Taille Enamel - experiments by My Brown Wren

These pieces were etched using electricity. If you are interested in learning to etch without acid, I have two tutorials available on my classes and tutorials page. The copper etching tutorial is a simple, step-by-step PDF that shows you how to etch copper, brass, bronze and nickel with salt water and electricity. My tutorial on how to etch silver is an hour long video with a backup PDF tutorial that goes through all the steps to etch silver without acid. It’s been a work in progress for a couple of years, but I finally got it done this summer. I’m just a little late in getting the word out…