Enamels and supplies

Various examples of enamel jewellery

Tools and the Workspace Enamels Choosing the type of enamel and colours is very much a personal choice. If money is tight firstly choose 50 gram sample pots, these are for sale at vitrium signum in sets of 6. Once you have these you can then build up a collection of your choice. Go for your favourite colours first or find a painting that you love and pick enamels in the nearest colours remembering there are transparent and opaque types. If you are clever you can get different effects by using an opaque underneath a transparent creating your own colours, do check that they are compatable as problems might occur.
Tools	Kilns	Enamels	Metals	Soldering	Workspace

		Enamels can be bought in many different forms. Enamels are ground to a fine particle size and then sifted through a mesh screen varying in size from 60 - 325. The smaller the size mesh the larger the grit size. The long tube contains painting enamels which are ground to a particle size of between 200 or 325, very fine. The black tub contains enamels for general use and the particle size is 80, the powder is shown in front of the test sample. The sticks are called threads and usually come mixed. The glass squares can be used in enamelling but check the thickness of your metal first.

		Shelves in the workroom containing all the enamels. Shown here are liquid in the large white pots, painting (top left), lustres (middle left), raku glazes (bottom left) and normal enamels (bottom and top right).

		Sieves of varying sizes are essential for sifting enamels. The large grey ones are ceramic sieves useful for sifting larger quantities, the red one is general purpose and the small white ones have varying mesh sizes which are great for sifting enamels for different applications.

		Gold foil, wonderful for bringing out the colour of transparent red on silver. Cloisonne wires in silver and copper.

		The pot with the orange label is kyle fire which is commonly used for adhereing enamels prior to firing. Gum tragacanth in the middle is in powder form and has to be added to liquid to a recipe, to make a glue similar to the kyle fire. Lavender oil on the right is mixed with painting enamels.