Eileen Schneegas with Sue Bergstrand

Dave Freda's workshop at the Enamelist Society conference, at Olympia in Washington State, covered enameling the kinds of three-dimensional fine silver cast forms he uses in his work. He cast a series of fine silver forms, from pasta to eggs to mushrooms to bird heads, for use in the workshop. This is "what I learned from Dave Freda" or a "how to" article.

Dave uses 180 grit sand papers and 'Scotch Brite' for cleaning his fine silver castings, which he does not usually wash prior to applying enamels. The casting sprue is cut off and the spot of attachment is filed using a coarse file. Sand paper and Scotch Brite follow. Our workshop pieces came pre-cleaned, so we didn't have to do these ourselves.

First we learned to make Dave's "slurry" for adhering enamel to his 3D form:

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