Process Shot of the Week

I'm super excited about all the paint enamel techniques I learned this summer with Jessica Caulderwood. I had purchased myself a set of acrylic painting enamels from Thompson. We didn't cover acrylics in Jessica's class, focusing instead on underglazes and overglazes, and I didn't get a chance to try these out until just last week.

I had a specific idea in mind when I bought these. I'd played around with them before a little and discovered they are similar to gouache. As an undergrad I learned traditional jewelry rendering with gouache, which I enjoy and would like to become more proficient at. So I decided I wanted to to some traditional rendering in enamel. I know the whole "jewelry as jewelry" has been done, and I don't really intend for these to make any kind of statement. I see them as just a way for me to pick up a new technique, and experiment with something other than rocks. (No worries though, I've got more rock works in the works!)

The paint is a little hard to control and rendering is something I feel like I have to do a dozen times before I get it right. The firing on these is a little tricky also; they burn out really easily. Plus, even though I got the soft flux, I still had problems with the white base coat coming up through. I deliberately overfired the example on the far right, to see if I could get a more "sketchy" quality.

I'm not super happy with these, but it's a start.