Monday 21 May 2012

Enamelled Constellation Brooch


Here is a brooch I have been working on, combining pottery shards with enamel, as these are the two techniques/materials I have been concentrating on these last few months.
I had a small collection of hand painted pottery shard stars, and putting them in an enamel sky made sense.

I didn't have many star shards so I had to find a small constellation - and I came across the perfect one: Equuleus - Latin for 'Little Horse' - Pegasus's little brother.

This is the process in pictures...

My left over star shards, each one hand painted many, many years ago.
These were the outcome of a whole year of mudlarking
so I won't be making many of these brooches...

The stars in place

Cut out in silver

Etch resist in place, ready to go in the acid...

I painted on some stars after the first layer had etched.
The grooves are going to be ground out...

The grooves left by the etching ground out, to leave a smooth surface for enamelling

First layer of enamel - looks green before it has cooled down

Second layer of enamel - a nice teal colour...

The last layer of enamel - cooled down and the right shade of blue.


The stars are now set in place - finished!
The pictures were taken over about a week, this was no quick process! It looks exactly like I imagined it would. The enamelling isn't perfect, but I'm pleased with it!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Tania,
    This is a wonderful celestial piece. I like how you found a constilation that would match up with the few star pottery shards. The end result of your piece is beautiful.
    Therese

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  2. Hey Tania, so interesting to see the process behind this piece........

    Such a lot of work but the end result is well worth the effort.
    I would so love to go mudlarking......how amazing would it be to find bits and pieces of pottery from years gone by.

    Claire :}

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