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Worked all afternoon on jewelry projects...
First I cleaned copper pieces... these were for etching although I did clean the finished pieces for enameling. This Penny Brite really cleans copper quickly.


Scalex prevents oxidation when enameling. It flakes off after firing along with the fire scale. These were the pieces I etched last week.


Nice thick coat of Scalex


OK it was so thick I had to get the hair dryer out... note to self make a note of the etched designs next time. When I brought them out to apply enamel I couldn't tell/remember what the designs were. the hair dryer was handy because - hot air = drying quickly.


While the first batch of etched pieces were drying, I stamped with StazOn permanent ink designs on the clean copper. Note - I bought Sharpie permanent marker...


attached to duct tape...


then to the plastic foam. This time I etched them for 2.5 hours. I wanted a deeper bite.


while the new batch was being etched, I gathered my enamel supplies...


Applied Klyre fire which helps the enamel stick to the copper and then dusted the enamel on with the sifter.


on the rack - ready to fire in the kiln. I used bits of glass to decorate the light dusting of the ground glass/enamel.


I did apply enamel to all the pieces. After 2.5 hours, I came in to rinse the new etched pieces of copper. Very pleased with the deeper bite.


I just applied scalex to the back of the newly etched pieces. Its fairly cold in the studio but I want to have them all ready to enamel at once so I'm not wasting electricity from running the kiln. I'm hoping that the enamel will adhere well. Usually enameled pieces are enameled on both sides.

Time for a heavier coat... I want to fire these pieces tonight....

Here's the results:

very disastrous even though I sifted a very light coat of enamel on the pieces. Kiln temperature might have been off; I super cleaned the pieces to wash any grease off the copper; the liquid to help adhere the enamel should have been OK. I wonder if the "Studio" was too cold and the pieces cooled too quickly after being removed from the kiln which might have made the enamel popped off.



Almost every piece blew big pieces to tiny pieces...
Oh well.... I'll just clean them up and try again.

never give up just shift your direction to keep creating...
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