Christopher Bull
With ten students to teach, all equipment was ready and laid out together with wall-mounted photographs of work Betty had done previously illustrating the various processes she was going to teach us.
Items required, apart from the usual copper blanks and powders, were: -
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stiff card (from a cereal packet)
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masking tape
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a scalpel and spare blades
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Polycell Classic glue and spray
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a flat unwashed "chisel" shaped artist's paint brush and
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a small wooden stick pointed at one end and chiselled at the other.
Also a firm surface for cutting out on.
Joan Bolton King
Introduction
This is the first of a short series in which I hope to entice enamellers to try their enamelling art on thin sheets of copper shim (0.06 - 0.15mm). I will list what is needed to get started in this introductory part and go on to suggest how the technique might be used for pictures and brooches etc.
The sparkle and variety of colour tone that can be captured by light reflected from a flat or worked metal surface, seen through various depths of transparent enamel is the basis of many enamelling techniques. Underlying undulations in the metal equally enhances the options and effects. Engraving and etching involve actually cutting into the surface, but repoussé and chasing demand pressing or punching depressions in the metal.
Repoussé (from the French "pousser" - to push out).
This is done by forcing the metal up from the underside, and possibly then working it alternately from both sides. This is usually done by hand applied pressure onto thinnish sheet. Chasing more often refers to hammering punches into heavier sheet (often 20 gauge and supported in pitch).
Applicable References
These techniques are mentioned in several enamelling books, with a specific article on using copper shim in the Book of Enamelling Techniques by Peter Wolfe & Gudde Skyrme (available from Camden Workshops).
The following report is a very condensed version of Roger Conlon's talk at our 1998 Conference.
We all have a lot of cultural ideas about how to divide surfaces. In an environment not well populated with buildings and pictures, the way in which we made a design would be influenced by nature, skylines, geology and the human body.
One thing from Egypt that has affected us all is a way of measuring. After a Nile flood they had to redefine the fields - an idea of measurement, interval and proportion - nothing to do with mathematics. They could take a rope and say "here's one and here's a half and divide it into three", but they had a rope which was divided into twelve. It can make a right-angled triangle - a 3-4-5 triangle - if you turn it over you can get more and more complex shapes, so this right-angled triangle was a way of dividing - a very natural way.
Kathleen Kay
In the last issue of the Journal I briefly introduced the City & Guilds Creative Skills Certificate 7802-44, Enamelling on Copper. Each of the 7802 Creative Skills courses includes a standard, but necessary, basic core unit designed to give students an understanding of colour and the ability to make simple visual notes using a variety of ideas and materials, including those used in the particular skills craft.
Joan Bolton King
Working the MetalThe copper shim for repoussé work must be as pliable as possible. Unless specifically soft tempered the metal sheet should first be annealed - heat to at least 500°C (almost red hot) then plunge it into cold water to remove as much fire scale as possible - later the remaining copper oxide can be pickled off with acid (or salt and vinegar). Always prepare enough shim to allow a margin of at least ⅛" round each proposed cut-out.
Shim can be re-annealed if working stiffens it, or even hardened by rubbing with the back of a big spoon.