Details

Parent Category: Technical Articles from Journal Back Copies

Category: Technical Articles 2004

Dorothy Cockrell

Tutoring a workshop is always an adventure. Each student brings their own individual experience and expectations, so the tutor has to trim and adapt her plan of action as the work progresses. When the workshop is held in a different country, the adventure is always going to be more exciting and the teaching plan more flexible.

I had asked for fluxes and transparent enamel to be provided for the workshop, also copper carbonate and silver nitrate. Enamels are made in India, so there was no point in planning to use European or American ones (quite apart from their weight in my baggage). It was going to be interesting to discover how Indian enamels compared to those I was accustomed to. The enamellers in the Indian group use liquid industrial enamel because it is cheap, buying it in powder form and mixing it with water. This results in a slightly lumpy and uneven texture, that is not unpleasant but not as smooth as our ready mixed liquid enamel. I was told that, unlike ours, their liquid enamels contain lead. Their method of applying it to the metal resembles painting rather than our dipping, sifting or wet laying. Indeed many of them were artists in other mediums, potters and painters, so their work with enamel reflected this, being free and confident.

Log in to read more....