Add some color to your life - and work - this summer!
If you’ve ever admired pictures of Rene Lalique’s
masterpiece “Dragonfly Woman” ornament, with glowing transparent
wings
of blue, you’ve seen plique a jour and it’s unique power to add color
and luster to jewelry design.
This summer, Diane Almeyda, the premier American plique-a-jour
enamelist, offers two workshops in plique E0 jour as part of the
Enamelist Society Biennial Conference, “Fusion,” being held in
Columbus Ohio August 24-26, 2007.
Starting with a frame of pierced silver or a filigree skeleton of
soldered silver wires; enamel is suspended and fired to fill the
openings. With no metal backing, the enamels transmit light and
resemble miniature stained glass. The result is a visual and
technical “tour-de-force.”
Almeyda’s pre-conference workshop, August 22-24, will cover the
pierced technique, while her post-conference workshop, August 27-29,
will concentrate on constructing a filigreed piece. Almeyda learned
filigree plique-a-jour from Valeri Timofeev, the great Russian
master of the technique.
Both workshops will take place at the Woodrow Carpenter Foundation
in Covington Kentucky which is affiliated with Thompson Enamel.
Thompson is the sole remaining American manufacturer of vitreous
enamel, and a promoter of the art form for many years. Other
Enamelist Society workshops still available at this site are Harold
B. Helwig, “Wetout and Underglaze,” a unique exploration of enamel
drawing techniques with one of the medium’s greatest experimenters
and teachers, and Jeanette Landenwitch, “Exploring Precious Metal
Clay for Enamelists.” Landenwitch is director of the PMC guild and
teaches PMC workshops throughout the U. S.
Interested in working BIGGER? Two workshops at Kent State’s
large-scale enameling facility also still have room for students.
Katy Bergman Cassell will present “Industrial Materials, Artistic
Expression” pre-conference, while Cathy Kay Taylor’s post-conference
workshop, “Color, Color, Color: Enamels and Color on a Large Scale”
will work with liquid and dry enamels to explore the color
possibilities of enamel on steel.
Registration for the conference and workshops can be done by mail or
online - but hurry! A $40 late fee will be charged after July 30th.
For more go to http://www.enamelistsociety.org
making… large selection of mold sizes for small and large castings