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I suspect like many others, I always enjoy trying out new colours.  I have recently been trying out some new additions to the list of colours produced by Milton Bridge including a number of yellows, transparent reds and a beautiful transparent purple. 

The first I tried was T253 Forsythia.  I found this worked best on fine silver with the temperature kept below 750C. It has great clarity and is a really pretty transparent yellow, slightly greener and deeper in tone than LJE214 Ochre.  Used direct on sterling silver in a single layer T253 has a slightly greyer hue and two layers produce a greenish brown.  It is a golden colour when fired directly onto copper, slightly greener in tone on copper over 263C10 Flux.  The copper sample I fired at 795C.  I hadn't used that particular flux before and am still uncertain about it as I didn't really have consistent results.  I need another set of tests to learn how to achieve consistent clarity with it.   

T255 Amber is also beautiful on fine silver, producing a slightly warmer tone.  Again it works well directly on fine silver and over LJE200 Flux and is a great addition to the list.  I fired this one at 800C without any adverse effect.   I also used it on copper over LJE200 Flux and MB202 White.  I had a bit of breakthrough of the white, which is probably a bit soft for a base for this kind of test. 

 016377 Dark Amber produces a brown when direct on sterling silver, a golden brown direct on fine silver but loses transparency.  Over LJE200 Flux it has a deeper and more golden tone than T255.  I still need have more tests to do over fluxes and on copper.

 DB6475 Purple is a glorious rich purple.  My first test was over LJE200 Flux and direct on fine silver and both are beautiful.  I don't have anything like this shade of purple.  It worked well over LJE200 Flux and MB202 white on copper, this slightly softer white breaking through slightly.  I also tested it on copper over SJE1012 Flux and MB020064 Opal White and had issues with cracking so feel I need to do some more tests for compatibility with other colours.

T254 Raspberry is very slightly darker than 261A27 Ruby but also works well when used directly on fine silver and on art clay silver, achieving good transparency.  Once again I had better results by keeping the temperature below 750C.  The deeper shade is more apparent on copper over  263C10 Flux, again fired at 780C. 

I also tried three opaque yellows but have so far only done one test of each on copper.  These samples were sifted on and fired at 800C.  

DB6647 is a warm yellow, perhaps with a faintly green undertone and I found it fired the most smoothly of the three, possibly being slightly softer firing than the others.

263H55 is a bright primary yellow, possibly slightly harder firing as my first sample isn't quite smooth.

DB6359 is slightly paler yellow and fired well at 800C. 

It is quite difficult to describe the differences between these three and I am not sure my photographs will show the slight variations in hue.  I have really enjoyed the process of trying these out and although my trials have not been extensive I can see that these colours will all be useful additions to the range.   Look out for them, they should be available from Vitrum Signum in the near future.

Details from: http://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=69&info_id=12703

and youtube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fl7uXusl00

According to historical sources, this most beautiful variety of precious metalwork originated in the second century AD and lasted until the middle of the fifteenth century. It was spread throughout two countries, Byzantium and Georgia. Only later, in the eleventh century, did it spread from this area to KievanRus'.

After the fifteenth century the technology of making cloisonné enamel was lost and we no longer come across objects made using this technique.

A project led by Ermile Maghradze entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Lost Technologies: Cloisonné Enamel' was initiated by the Georgian National Museum with the financial support of UNESCO.

The technological processes described in these treatises were studied as part of this project, and all those tools were reconstructed that would have been needed by medieval workshops to make cloisonné enamel.

As this project progressed, archaeological material was studied in parallel with various other activities, thus lending greater plausibility to research work.

In this respect the discovery of a conical iron hood with apertures, together with its plate, on the territory of historical Colchis, specifically, during the archaeological digs on the site of the former town of Vani in 1966, represents an important scientific find.

After the reconstruction of the enamelling hood described in Theophilus's treatise and experiments carried out on it, it became possible to determine the function of this hood. Many experiments undertaken in this direction showed that the ‘Colchian hood' was a tool for goldsmith work, used by the ancient Colchians in the early classical period for soldering operations on precious metals.The crowning stage of the ‘In the Footsteps of Lost Technologies: Cloisonné Enamel' project is a copy of a cloisonné enamel medallion of Saint Simon the Apostle from the Khakhulitriptych icon of the All-Holy Mother of God, which was made by Ermile Maghradze, the project leader, using tools which had been prepared as part of this project. 

Address: Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia,  3 Shota Rustaveli Avenue 

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