Enameling Principles and Practice

Kenneth F. Bates

• Publisher: Cullen Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781406701296, 9781443720762
• eBook ISBN: 9781446545379

Enameling on metal is not difficult. It is an exacting art which demands careful attention to such details as cleaning, application and firing, but it cannot be called "hard to do." In my opinion a technical process such as enameling becomes as "easy" or "hard" to do as the one doing it makes it for himself. If one proposes to be an artist, he never considers such an ambiguous term, but works with only one idea in mind; that is, to finish to his own satisfaction the present piece of work so that he may be released to start the next. There can be no termination to art endeavor, for, especially after finishing an enamel, there are always variations of color, texture and motif which come to one's mind. The process of making and firing an enamel, therefore, constitutes a truly creative activity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• I A Brief History of Enameling
• II How Enamels are Compounded and Enameling Tools and Materials
• III Making the First Piece of Enamel
• IV Testing the Colors, the use of Metal Foils and the Individual Palette
• V Characteristics of Certain Enamels
• VI Making Limoges Enamels
• VII Making Cloisonné Enamels by the Older Technique and a Modern Version
• VIII Making Champlevé, Plique-á-Jour, Basse-Taille and Other Types of Enamels
• IX Design for Enameling and the Understanding and Feeling for the Medium of enameling
• X Experiments, Suggestions for New Uses of Enamel and Earning a Living by Enameling
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index