A report on Dorothy Cockrell's experimental workshop on Separation Enamels - Cirencester 1998
Jean Currie
Eight enamellers assembled for a workshop and not one of us knew what separation enamel looked like, let alone had used it previously. In fact, the lead-free separation enamel from Thompsons, which we were to use, was in reddish powder form. It had advantages over the old lead bearing separation enamel in that it contained no lead, was available in a dry powder as well as in an oil base, left no residue after firing and allowed work to be done on flat surfaces.
We were to learn that when painted or sifted onto a fired enamel surface, separation makes the surface it touches runny and pushes the surrounding enamels aside when fired.
All enamellers will remember how it felt to be a beginner. Veronica's delightful account of her difficulties in "making friends" with the enamels should comfort new members and enlighten the rest as to how far they have travelled - even if they think they have been standing still.
It was love at first sight when I first saw Pat Johnson's enamels at West Dean, their translucent colour and poetic images going straight to my heart. "How do you do it?", I asked fervently.
Now two Summer Schools, one weekend at West Dean College later and a year on my own, I am beginning, just beginning, to learn the process.
I am lucky to have a room in my flat which I can use as a workshop and to have inherited a small Uhlig kiln and some equipment. It was a leap of faith to invest in the enamels, as I had met mental blocks about the techniques on the Summer School courses and could not understand why. I think now that they were related to the gap between high flown artistic aspirations (Oh dear!) and the lack of knowledge or real understanding of the medium, but I decided to risk it anyway.
Metalwork & Art
At primary school my 'best' subject was art and I won many prizes in local art competitions. I failed to pass the 11 plus, but I passed the 13 plus and attended a technical school for boys that offered a choice of either building, engineering, or, art as a special study. I had the opportunity to study art for the equivalent of two days a week at Gravesend Art School in Kent. When I was 15, I began eight years of full-time studies in Gravesend, Canterbury and London specialising in silversmithing. I then took up a one year post graduate art education course in Birmingham and qualified as a teacher offering metalwork and art. Then followed over thirty years in art, design and craft education in the Midlands and the North West. I taught in schools and lectured in a school of art, a summer school, on a teacher training course and was then an adviser and inspector in a local education authority. I then retired and was self-employed as an education consultant - and then I retired again!
Dorothy Cockrell, Jack Heard, photos by Helen Sewell
"Do hold and examine it - over its box on the table, of course, so that if a bit of enamel falls off, we can find it without having to crawl around the carpet". "It" was a filigree enamel from 600AD! Actually, there was very little enamel left on it after 1300 years, but we could examine the round gold wire, pre-dating the use of flat cloisonné wire, and understand that the enamel would not have filled the piece, but reflected the light in a slightly dimpled way.
This is the way to visit a museum - no need for trying vainly to get a piece into the right slice of our bifocals or asking a younger visitor to read the label for us. How often have we wondered what the back of an exhibit was like, or what details were invisible due to dim lighting or reflections. David Buckton, Curator of Medieval Enamels and Icons, of the British Museum had two big trays of fascinating enamels for us to inspect, handle and discuss. They ranged from a minute piece (¼cm diameter), to a Thomas a Becket reliquary and a late 19thC forgery of Byzantine enamels.
Pat Johnson
Reading Veronica Matthew's article in the last issue of the Journal, I was pleased that she had found working with the soft white enamels so rewarding. I first came across these enamels when I was researching for Gudde Skyrme her entire range of whites. One of the first tasks was to put the thirteen whites in order of hardness and it was then that I found Soyer 159, Soyer 615 and C100 to be at the extreme soft end of the range.