How to Enamel
Hello, Zoe here again and
welcome to my ‘how to enamel’ blog.
Right then, firstly you
need to have a good base to enamel on.
It has to withstand temperatures of over 1,000 degrees so the best metal
for the job would be copper.
I’m going to be using a
recycled copper piping, the stuff that you find in your house (not that you
should go ripping up your house just for this ha ha).
Firstly you will need to
cut the piping to the correct length.
I have used a metal tube cutter as this gives a nice even edge, but you
can use a saw if you don’t have this lovely tool. Once the correct length saw lengthways down the middle so to
be able to bend it flat once it’s out of the kiln.
Next I am going to fire
the copper tube in the kiln. This
makes the copper really pliable, so making it really easy to bend. Once the copper is red hot, using some
metal enamelling pliers, CAREFULLY remove it out of the kiln and submerge it
into cold water.
Once it is out of the
water you will find that the copper is very bendy and you will be able to
flatten it out. The way I did this was by bending it out with my hands, then
using a vice with aluminium plates to gently squash the copper in between the
plates until flat.
Be warned though as the
more you bend it the harder the copper will become. If you bend it too much you might have to fire it again, and
this will make it weaker!
Next you will want to
drill you holes in your copper (this only applies if you want holes in it!!! I
am popping holes in it to turn it into a necklace!)
Using a small vice and a
pillar drill gently drill through your pre marked and punched holes.
You should now have your
base!
The next step is
enamelling. You need to make sure
your copper is clean and ready to accept the enamel. Using a glass brush (a small brush made from fibreglass)
scuff up the backside of your copper.
Then, using a fine sieve,
gently build up a layer of counter enamel (special backing enamel) over the
back of your copper piece.
You want to make sure the
layer is quite thick, may be about 5mm, although it helps to work out what is
right for your kiln.
Once you have your enamel
on your copper, using the metal enamelling tongs, carefully place the copper
with counter enamel onto the wire grill in the kiln. This will be very very very hot so please be so careful when
doing this!!!
Watching through your
small window, try and judge when the enamel powder has started to melt, the
timings will be very different with each kiln. With my kiln it happened at about 40 seconds. You can tell when it is starting to go
as the powder will go hard and then cracks will appear, shortly after this
stage it will melt into one form.
Once melted, remove (again
with the metal enamel tongs) and leave on a heatproof block to cool down, this
again varies but should take about 10 mins.
Once cool you can repeat
the process on the other side, but this time using your chosen enamel colours.
And now you have a lovely
piece of enamelled copper!
A few useful hints and
tips to remember:
- Always enamel the back first with the counter
enamel as this helps stop the front from pealing off.
- If you don’t want the back to stick to the
grill when you are firing the front with your enamel colour, you might
want to erect a small platform for your work to balance on, using nails or
other metal that can withstand the heat, but wont melt in the kiln.
- Always use glove and the tongs when firing, it
gets pretty hot and will burn your skin right off if you touch it at all!
I should know as I did it a few times and it really really hurts!!!
- If you want to get a bit fancy with your enamelling then you can always silver solder some copper wire to the copper base, and using a mix of deionised water and glass powder, paint the powder into the areas you have created.
if you would like to buy any of these creations, or would just like to see what else i have been making then please visit my website at
thanks for watching
