You are in for a real treat today for Tutorial Tuesday! Andrea Oda, the super talented artist behind Dreams and Jewelry, has put together an exclusive tutorial just for Indie Fixx readers on how to apply images to enameled pendants. Andrea creates gorgeous enameled jewelry and is a leader in the field of enameled jewelry. I’m so impressed with Andrea’s work that I carry some of her designs in the Indie Fixx Shop….all of which are created using the technique that Andrea shares in her tutorial. I’ve also featured Andrea’s work before on Indie Fixx here and here.
Make sure to visit Andrea’s shop and take a look at all her stunning jewelry designs. She uses a variety of other techniques besides enameling to make her lovely and drooliscious designs.
Also, be sure to join the Tutorial Tuesday flickr group and share your enameled jewelry results or any pics from your completed Tutorial Tuesday projects.
How to Apply Images to Enameled Pendants Tutorial!
These directions are for use with a programmable electric kiln. Set your kiln to 1500 degrees to get started.
1. While the kiln is warming up, stick your enamel pieces on a wire shelf to create oxides on the surface of the copper. You can also take your copper piece and fire it with a torch in order for the oxides to form as well.
2. This is what you copper will look like once the oxides have formed on the surface of the copper.
3. It’ll look thick and crusty and will crumble and fall off as you lift it with your tongs so lift them quickly and throw them into a pickle solution that you have warming in any standard crock pot. Pickle can be purchased at any jewelry supply store. I usually have one pickle pot for copper and one for silver since the copper pickle will degrade faster from the oxides that fall off into the solution.
4. Once your copper has sat in the pickle anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, pull them out with copper tongs and start the process of scrubbing them clean. You’ll want to wear gloves for this step to ensure that oils from your hands don’t transfer to your cleaned pieces. Or if you forgo gloves just be careful picking them up because anywhere there is oil, the enamel will NOT stick to that area. Not good. I use Scotchbrite pads to scrub them very well and these also provide a nice tooth to the metal.
5. Once your copper piece is cleaned transfer it carefully onto a trivet and sift on any color of enamel that you’d like. This step will place color onto the “back” of your piece. To help the enamel stick you can use any type of enameling glue like Klyr Fire.
6. Once you sift on the color, it should be nice and even on the piece and not falling off the edges.
7. Fire the “back” side of your piece in your 1500 degree kiln for about 2-3 minutes. Keep watch to make sure you reach a nice orange peel stage and take it out once you see it “slightly” still bumpy but mostly smooth. This will help reduce re-melting onto the trivet when you start to fire the front of your piece.
{repeat steps 4 - 7 to fire the “front” of the piece. You’ll need to re-pickle your piece since oxides will form when you first fire the back enamel on your piece}
Now the fun part!
8. Find a pretty rubber stamp, any stamp will do. Use a brush and any gum (Klyr Fire or Embossing Adhesive) to paint on the area of the stamp that you want transferred.
9. This picture shows the rubber area that you would apply your adhesive or gum to.
10. This is the portion of the stamp that I wanted on the pendant. Your rubber stamp should have this amount of adhesive on it and should look glossy.
11. Once you use your rubber stamp to stamp the image onto the already enameled pendant carefully a darker color of enamel onto the glue and blow or tap off the excess enamel. If you mess up your image before you fire, wipe it clean with water and keep re-stamping until you’re please with the image. I usually have to wipe it clean about 2-3 times to get it the way that I want.
12. Re-fire at 1500 degrees until the darker color of your pattern melts into the lighter pendant background color and Voiila! You’re Fin!
Here’s a completed pendant from Dreams and Jewelry using the techniques in this tutorial that is available in the Indie Fixx Shop.
