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...
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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... |
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| The stars in place |
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| Cut out in silver |
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| Etch resist in place, ready to go in the acid... |
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I painted on some stars after the first layer had etched.
The grooves are going to be ground out... |
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| The grooves left by the etching ground out, to leave a smooth surface for enamelling |
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| First layer of enamel - looks green before it has cooled down |
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| Second layer of enamel - a nice teal colour... |
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| The last layer of enamel - cooled down and the right shade of blue. |
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| 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!
Hi Tania,
ReplyDeleteThis 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
Hey Tania, so interesting to see the process behind this piece........
ReplyDeleteSuch 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 :}