Enamels and Enamelling

[Kwant]

Well having had my scare about the stress involved, today I ordered my copy of the book suggested by Carole, by Linda Darty. It had better relieve some of the stress or I might have to stamp my feet and ............... well it wont be pretty.

[caroleallen]

Well having had my scare about the stress involved, today I ordered my copy of the book suggested by Carole, by Linda Darty. It had better relieve some of the stress or I might have to stamp my feet and ............... well it wont be pretty.

You'll love it.

[Di Sandland]

I have that and it's brilliant. I also have Enamelling on Precious Metals by Jeanne Wenge-Hartley http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enamelling-P...9620609&sr=1-1 which is also fabulous and seems to complement the Linda Darty one really well.

I also have the Beginners Guide to Enamelling by Dorothy Cockrell http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beginners-Gu...9620734&sr=1-1 which I wasn't too impressed with - it is very very basic and has an old fashioned feel to it.

[Dennis]

Stop it you two. I'm definitely not starting on enameling. Definitely not. No.

[Di Sandland]

Oh, but Dennis, you would love it - always something new to learn and the colours are vibrant and jewel-like...

[Dennis]

Oh, but Dennis, you would love it.

I know once I started, it would take over my whole life. Adam bit into the fruit of the tree of knowledge and look where it got us, other than giving jobs to midwives.

Dennis.

[Di Sandland]

I'm a retired one of them (midwives), so don't knock it Dennis!

[medusa]

I do a bit of enamelling, mostly fixing up damaged art nouveau bits and bobs I pick up on ebay to resell. When I do it the kiln is at about 750. I should stress though that I'm pretty conservative in what I do and stick with what works.

For the record the way I go about it is to remove all the old enamel in hydrofluoric acid (scary job!) and then I give a really good polish and wash. I have so far had good results other than one rather lovely deco pendant and a Mott dragonfly. This was because the silver formed bubbles under the enamel. Rather gallingly I'm going to have to probably scrap the dragonfly

[Di Sandland]

I do a bit of enamelling, mostly fixing up damaged art nouveau bits and bobs I pick up on ebay to resell. When I do it the kiln is at about 750. I should stress though that I'm pretty conservative in what I do and stick with what works.

For the record the way I go about it is to remove all the old enamel in hydrofluoric acid (scary job!) and then I give a really good polish and wash. I have so far had good results other than one rather lovely deco pendant and a Mott dragonfly. This was because the silver formed bubbles under the enamel. Rather gallingly I'm going to have to probably scrap the dragonfly

What a shame about the dragonfly! :-( I love art nouveau and doing what you do had never occurred to me; it will be a while before I'm confident enough to do that though. Hydrofluoric acid - hell, that is scary, is there nothing else that will do the job (to answer myself, I guess not cos if there was you wouldn't be using the HF). I should have known you'd be doing something like this cos we like similar stuff.

[Kwant]

That reminds me of a scene in the American series Breaking Bad, where a young guy tries to dispose of a body in the bath in an upstairs room with HF acid, well it did not go well :0)

I perhaps should not be let loose near such stuff as I have already spilled a jar of sulphuric onto myself, my trousers were off quicker than they have ever been, it did not do much good to the as was rush matting in my studio, which rotted away and has now had to be replaced.