Vetkat enamels

For these enamels I decided to experiment with a new technique I've never used before. I rolled fine silver to as thin as it could go, then folded it over and rolled again. I repeated this process a couple of times until I ended up with very very thin silver. I was able to tear the silver without using tin snips...


... my first plan was to place the silver on a copper background and with transparent enamel, enamel over the silver. This would show a contrast between the copper and the colour ontop of the silver. The piece on the bottom left shows this process. I wasnt happy with the shape of my little tree, so I then tried enamelling over silver that I tore off with my hands instead of cutting with tin snips. Unfortuanately the 'Pea' enamel gave me a bit of trouble and the silver ended up forming a Eutectic alloy (where the silver and copper combine, because the coppers melting point is higher than that of the fine silver). This piece can be seen on the bottom right. Ultimately I tried the same technique of tearing little pieces of silver, only this time i enamelled the copper first, then placed the silver on top, put it back into the kiln, and let the silver sink into the enamel slightly... this was my favourite one of the three, and can be seen at the top of the photo...