Elaine Branwell
Fine Enamel Plaques for Jewellery and to Embellish
- About the Event
- Transparent and translucent enamels, layered and engraved, pure gold and fine-silver foil, are used to produce, "one-off" figurative plaques on hand-raised metal backings for setting in jewellery, box-lids, book-bindings, church plate, etc. Setting undertaken. Selected by Goldsmiths' Hall for exhibition, three years running. Jewellery making tuition provided in Wellington.
- Event Type
- Exhibition
- Disciplines
- Ceramics/Glass, Jewellery, Mixed Media
- Telephone
- 01823 666970
- info@ebranwellenamels.co.uk
- Website
- www.ebranwellenamels.co.uk
- Opening Times
Fri 7th Sat 8th Sun 9th Mon 10th Tue 11th Wed 12th Thu 13th Fri 14th Sat 15th Sun 16th closed 10am - 6pm 10am - 5pm 10am - 5pm closed closed closed closed closed closed - Further Info
Essentially, enamel is glass fused to metal.
The colours of the special glass are achieved by the addition of expensive, metallic oxides to the clear, "frit": gold for reds, tin to give opacity. These oxides determine at what temperature the various colours must be fired, and, thus, their sequence of application.
The coloured frit, having been ground in an agate pestle and mortar, under distilled-water, to a fine, sand-like consistency, is rinsed, many times, with more distilled water, for clarity, before its careful application. Once fired, a mistake is there for eternity: enamelling allows the artist no remedy.
I use transparent, and cloudy, "opalescent", enamels, interspersed with hand-beaten, engraved, pure gold and fine-silver foils, between the many, separately-fired layers of enamel. These I fire onto vari-shaped plaques that I have pierced-out and hand-raised from sheet metal, using silver-smithing techniques, with tiny hammers from the 1800s. They may be set as jewellery, on box-lids, in the handles of paper-knives and bookmarks, on napkin rings, in a frame to be hung or stood, in church-plate, or used to embellish a book-binding, etc. Settings are undertaken, to individual requirements, or unset plaques may be purchased in a signed presentation box. My work has been selected for exhibition the three years running before I moved to Somerset, by Goldsmiths' Hall, and is illustrated in books and periodicals.
I teach jewellery-making in Wellington, Somerset.
I am a member of the, "Wellington and Wiveliscombe Guild".
Venue Information
- Address
-
Victoria RoomsFore StreetMilveronSomersetTA4 1JU
- For Venue Information
- 01823 401257
- Parish
- Milverton
- Disabled Access
- Good