Enameling

I have leather enameling gloves...but I never use them. Getting tired of my thumb always getting just a tad bit too hot when I put those pieces in the kiln!!!...maybe I should wear those gloves:-)

Anyway ...I am working on a wonderful light steel blue and golden orange floral piece...it's very tedious.
Have been trying to find some short cuts...but there are not many!!

Here's an interesting tid bit. I am using eutectic solder for these little flowers. The first flower I put in the kiln I was not thinking and put it in a hot kiln that was ramped up to 1515 F. Well, this solder is suppose to melt/flow at 1460 F. The flower was in the kiln for a minute and a half...but when I took it out of the kiln...it was fine. It had not come apart. Perhaps I was just lucky on that one!!:-) Nice to know there is room for error on the soldering flow temp!

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Comment by Deborrah Daher on May 7, 2011 at 9:15am: Bring some examples to the SMM meeting, Aimee - I would love to see the construction method and get "hands on" - beautiful!

Comment by Aimee A. Domash on May 5, 2011 at 9:16pm: That is good to know Kimberly...Thanks!;)

Catherine...I did actually start out making them with a ball at one end and wrapping the other end...but they looked messy and unprofessional...so I decided soldering them would be better. But balling the other end is a good idea as well.

Thanks!!

Comment by Catherine Witherell on May 3, 2011 at 11:22pm: And I heard recently from Judy Stone that only after the 2nd or third firing will the join be weakened to the point of falling apart, so it's best to really think through your project, keep the firing to a maximum of 2 per piece and you should be fine. With the blossoms on your necklace there if you could join them with a balled rivet instead of solder it would be even better. Last, perhaps the temperature could be 1400 tops.

Comment by Kimberly Nogueira on May 3, 2011 at 6:15pm: It's my understanding that if if you've soldered a piece, the "reflow" temperature of the solder will be higher than the solder's original melting temperature. I'm not sure if that explains your success or not but anyway, your enameling is gorgeous!