Updates

• 
  Mark Morris commented on Inga Iobidze's photo.

  November 19, 2018

  

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    Mark Morris This is really beautiful, very fine cloisonne. I'd like to ask a few questions if I may. Is this on fine silver? Also how is the piece fixed into the outside mounting, is it soldered onto the main piece before the enamelling?

    • November 19, 2018
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  • 
    Inga Iobidze Thank you Mark...I made this piece on copper coated with silver foil. silver wire fixed by flux on the foil

    • November 20, 2018
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• 
  Mark Morris added a new photo to the album Enamel Cross Project:

  September 20, 2018

  • Christina L and Barry Wechsler like this.
• 
  Mark Morris has added a new profile photo.

  September 20, 2018

  
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  Mark Morris → David Berfield: Hi David, I saw some photo's, on-line, of you using a large kiln for firing hung enamel panels. Did you construct the kiln yourself? If so could you offer any guidance? Thanks

  November 23, 2016
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  Mark Morris added 3 photo(s) to the album Enamel Cross Project:

  February 19, 2016

  • Leszek Kralka and Gayane Avetisyan like this.
  • 
    Leszek Kralka Fantastycznie to zrobiłeś !!!! Brawo

    • February 19, 2016
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  • 
    Trish White MARK, It's so nice to see you posting your fabulous work once again! This cross is priceless!

    • September 20, 2018
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  • 
    Christina L Brilliant work, Mark.

    • October 28, 2018
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• 
  Ewa Buksa is now friends with Mark Morris.

  September 14, 2015
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  Mark Morris → Charlotte Smith:

  Hi Charlotte, likewise, it was good to meet you last evening too. I had expected there to be a lot more pieces from all the Guild and Society members, I hadn't expected it to be just a select set of about forty or so. So I feel really honoured!

  November 14, 2013
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  Mark Morris → Pat Johnson:

  Hi Pat,

  
  

  I've been corresponding with Jenny Edge, asking her about using a large enamelling kiln. She recommended getting in contact with you as you have experience with using large kilns.

  
  

  I'm thinking of getting a larger kiln, primarily for a potential

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  Hi Pat,

  
  

  I've been corresponding with Jenny Edge, asking her about using a large enamelling kiln. She recommended getting in contact with you as you have experience with using large kilns.

  
  

  I'm thinking of getting a larger kiln, primarily for a potential job I have, but in general I'd like to experiment with larger work. Is there any specific kiln type I need to get, all my smaller kilns are the muffle type, with the elements hidden inside the brick - is this important with enamelling? Any help would be gratefully received.

  
  

  Thanks

  
  

  Mark

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  September 23, 2014
• 
  Mark Morris → Carol Davis:

  Let me know how you get on, especially if you do any experiments with copper thickness - I'm quite keen to explore that myself too.

  September 19, 2013
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  Mark Morris → Carol Davis:

  Hi Carol,

  
  

  I think you're right, it might be too much for the wall but I'll give it a go. There maybe other people who would like to contribute to the discussion too!

  
  

  With enamel painting you don't need to fire the piece for as long as you would if you

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  Hi Carol,

  
  

  I think you're right, it might be too much for the wall but I'll give it a go. There maybe other people who would like to contribute to the discussion too!

  
  

  With enamel painting you don't need to fire the piece for as long as you would if you were enamelling a piece of copper. Typically I fire a piece for about a minute at 800 degrees C (when I'm enamelling copper I fire the piece for 3 minutes). The loss of detail you're experiencing may be due to over firing. If the piece is only lightly enamelled then you may only need about 50 seconds. The trick is to fire it just so it goes glossy.

  
  

  I'm not sure what brand of paints I'm using, I'm afraid. I'm using some paint at the moment that I acquired from another artist who, sadly, passed away. I don't get through much of it - as you can imagine for miniatures. I do know that it's on-glaze and it comes pre-mixed with oil. I use both oil and turps substitute to apply it. The oil acts as the medium to hold the pigment, whereas the turps tends to thin it down. I'm using lavender oil at the moment but I'm finding it a bit thin for some applications.

  
  

  Each piece will typically take about 8 firings. I try to fill the piece with paint for each firing so as to minimize the number of firings as each firing carries with it the risk of something going wrong. With each firing you will lose some detail, and the piece will distort to some degree.

  
  

  Warping can be minimized by shaping the copper before it is enamelled. A domed shape at the edges with a slight curve over the main part helps. Also the evenness of the enamel coating makes a difference too. Both the top and underside of the piece need to have equal thicknesses of enamel or else the copper will expand more on one side than the other - this also can lead to cracking. It can be tricky to enamel both sides of a piece for one firing if you're using the sprinkling method, even with an adhesive it can easily knock off. I use spraying, but dipping may also work.

  
  

  To reduce cracking I build up the enamel coating with thin layers, whenever I've had problems with cracking it's usually because I've applied the enamel too thickly in a particular area.

  
  

  As regard to the thickness of the copper, this is something to experiment with. I'm using 0.8mm but I think I could get away with less. It might, like you say, help to reduce cracking. Thicker pieces of copper tend to need a thicker coating of enamel, so if you're using 1.02mm then it's worth while building up a thicker layer of enamel with lots of thinner coats - don't apply a thick coat in one go.

  
  

  I hope this helps

  
  

  Mark

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  September 17, 2013
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  Debbie Sheezel:

  Thank you Mark for your kind words. I don't often look up GOG. always very busy. I noticed you remarked on one of my silver boxes ages ago. The box is made of 1.2 Sterling silver and is hand made. I'm not doing so many of these lately as they take up so

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  Thank you Mark for your kind words. I don't often look up GOG. always very busy. I noticed you remarked on one of my silver boxes ages ago. The box is made of 1.2 Sterling silver and is hand made. I'm not doing so many of these lately as they take up so much time. The base metal is sometimes  graved band sometimes I use Foils. I'm glad you like my work. Thanks again.

   

  September 4, 2014
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  Carol Davis: Great, thank you Mark for taking the time and answering all of my questions. You've helped me, and I'm going to change a few ways that I'm going about painting miniatures. Thank you so much, it was very valuable advice.

  September 18, 2013
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  Natia Malazonia:

  Thank you so much. I'm happy than  you like my work., You are doing amazing works.

  yes  hoto:92555?xg_source=activity">Japanese

  Size Is  21 x 17 cm?"

  May 31, 2013
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  Mark Morris → ASK THE EXPERTS:

  Let me know how your experiments go, I'm interested in the result! I don't know of anywhere, now, that makes copper boxes for enamelling. There were a few companies in Birmingham, UK, for a while but they're not there any more. You could try Halcyon

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  Let me know how your experiments go, I'm interested in the result! I don't know of anywhere, now, that makes copper boxes for enamelling. There were a few companies in Birmingham, UK, for a while but they're not there any more. You could try Halcyon Days, Elliot Hall or Staffordshire Enamels but they wouldn't supply me. In the end I decided all the time spent trying to find a supplier was better spent developing my own box. 

   

  September 2, 2014
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  Mark Morris → ASK THE EXPERTS:

  I don't know of any way around this problem to be honest. With my own work I avoid this last step if I can. The trick is to keep the paint reasonably thin with each layer so it can fire to a gloss, I aim to do the hardest firing at the end and only fire

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  I don't know of any way around this problem to be honest. With my own work I avoid this last step if I can. The trick is to keep the paint reasonably thin with each layer so it can fire to a gloss, I aim to do the hardest firing at the end and only fire to 'just gloss' at every intermediate step. I have seen other artists' work where they have used flux and it can give a lovely soft finish but I understand the frustration of losing the detail. Have you tried using a larger particle size with the wet packing in addition to washing? This usually gives a clearer flux finish.

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  September 2, 2014