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Parent Category: Projects from Journal Back Copies

Category: Projects 2005

Joan Bolton King

These are planned using three-inch shallow dishes; although more elaborate larger ones can be very successful. They can be simple or more complicated, requiring minimal or greater enamelling skills, and provide scope for some experimentation.

The inside is enamelled in a single plain colour, either transparent (preferably one that works well without a flux base) or opaque (mazarine blue is excellent). Several coats may be needed to get the required depth of colour.

The central 'floret' in the blue dish is composed of millefiori, beads or shot - or even small rounded balls of enamel, made beforehand on a firing pad by melting frit, chips or small fragments of commercial glass (this probably requiring a high firing). One can be stuck in the exact centre, before placing the others. However, if you cover the rest of the dish with gum and quickly add another sprinkling of the coloured enamel, this will provide a rough surface on which the remaining 'beads' can be placed accurately. Then again, if a small space is left between each bead and they are fired on this added sprinkling of the base coat, a clearly visible line will remain - thicker coats give stronger lines - despite the beads closing and changing shape as they melt down.

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