Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by Byzantine art, particularly their enameled pieces. It was a dream of mine to be able to make items like those. I'm a beginning jeweler so I've still got a ways to go, but this weekend I started on my first attempt at a byzantine iconic enamel piece!
I've done some test pieces to try out basic enameling. I've done a few champleve pieces using acid etching or using a sawn/soldered on layer to make the cavities. And I've done a few simple cloissonne pieces.
I borrowed a copy of Margarete Seeler's book, "Enamel Medium for Fine Art" from the Enamelist Society Library (an awesome resource, by the way,
www.EnamelistSociety.org) and found a really nice technique for shaping the cavity without soldering or acid etching. It has the advantage of appearing to be the historical technique, too! Check out chapter 3.
Yesterday I made the back plate with the requisite angel-shaped cavity in it out of copper. After a hour of fumble-fingering tiny cloissons all over the floor, making little progress, I went back to my books and started reading. There had to be a simpler way than the one I was using!
Linda Darty's book ("The Art of Enameling") had some very workable tips on how to hold the cloissons in place while I made the design. Double-sided tape over the drawing is a God-send! Her book also had some good ideas for jigs that would speed up farbricating cloissons that use repetitive design elements.
I still fumble-finger the pieces onto the floor with great regularity, but at least once I place them on the drawing they (mostly) stay where they are supposed to.
I've got about 1/5th of the necessary cloissons made over a two hour time period. That seems horribly slow for production work, but it's so very much faster than anything I've been able to do before that it's still a big improvement.
(Is it horribly slow for production work? Or is that the kind of speed I should expect?)
I'll post photos as I go along, just as soon as I can figure out which pile of craft stuff the camera got buried under.
FYI, for those of you interested in Byzantine style enamel works, aside from Seeler's book mentioned above, here's a few good references:
"Byzantine Enamels", Klaus Wessel.
"The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era", edited by Helen Evans and William Wixom.
By the way, I'm in Fayetteville, NC, USA. If anyone wants to learn along with me, I'm happy to share my studio equipment. It's way more fun learning along with someone else.
