Cloisonne wire bending
There are so many different ways to bend wires perfectly for enamellers.
Whether you use round or flat “soft, medium or hard wire, is dependent on what you want to do and your preference. If you want very sharp corners and you work on flat surfaces, medium or hard wire is advisable. If you work on a domed surface soft wire works better.
If you bend free forms use your fingers, little tweezers or round or flat nosed pliers. Be careful to hold flat wires really vertical to a flat surface. For perfect curves you can bend the wire around pipes, little bottles, round boxes, or whatever has the curve you need. If you need triangles, squares or polygonal, use wooden or metallic rods or whatever. You can also find many applicable objects for bending wires your toolbox.
This is a clever bending tool made by a Russian enameller. He cut the eye of a darning needle in half, and put it in a round stick. With this fork you can bend wires exactly over a paper sketch
It is important to hold the fork exactly vertical during bending. For thinner or thicker wires you can make this tool from needles with different size large eyes.
If you need many similar pieces you can make a so called lazy bone. Small nails are struck in the desired design into a board. The wires are bent around the nails and the artist always receives the same form.
To flatten bent wires vertical, lay the wire on a flat surface. Lay a little board over the wire and strike carefully with a mallet or rubber hammer on the board.
Domed surfaces
If your work piece is domed, bend the wires over a second piece, which is domed in the same manner as the piece you want to enamel. You also can make a depression in a piece of wood. Also good tools are dapping blocks and/or stakes.
If you want to dome a straight flat wire vertical, you must make 2 helping eyes on the both ends of the wire. The eyes hold the wire vertical if you bend it
Press the wire in a sinking- or dapping block.
To hold the wire vertical during firing, make a little kink on one or both ends. The kink should lay on the firing rack.
For a ball-making-workshop I presented some years ago, I made special tool for the students to apply cloisonné wire on to a domed form and to hold the balls during enamelling. I think the picture is self-explanatory. Put the bent wire inside the depression and press it down with the wooden ball. The wires are domed perfectly. The whole article Ball enamelling you will find in my HP:
http://www.emailkunst.de/kugel_emaillieren.htm
In the lower part of the page you will find the article in English
If you make larger or less domed work pieces, you can make similar tools to apply the cloisonné wire on to a domed form.
Whether you dome the bended wire in the depression or over the dome, is a question of your preference.
Edmund Massow E-Mail:
massow@emailkunst.de HP:
www.emailkunst.de
How to do straight lines with flat cloisonne-wire
There are 2 possibilities also with flat wires to produce straight lines :
1) Make the straight wire a bit longer as you need. Bend the wire end into a U and lay the shorter end also to the plate.
2) Snip both ends of the stright wire to a trianglel. Bend one end to the right side, the other to the left side. After the enamelling these triangles are not to be seen any more.
http://www.emailkunst.de
