Just like you, Melissa, I have been fascinated by the black ‘halo’ surrounding liquid enamel on steel and many pieces have been built around it, polishing the surrounding steel back to a silver surface. It is so very frustrating though that sometimes the ‘halo’ is beautiful and jet black, at other times thin and frayed. My theory is that it depends on the particular batch of steel, the iron content, how it is rolled etc. (And of course, how I feel when I work and apply the enamel)

The below is an example of a piece from ‘Playing with Fire’, perfect edge.

 

 

 

 

 

I have never been able to achieve the same, although I am trying to embrace the serendipity of the kiln and the material. The results for Drawing, Permanence and Place were rather different.

And a close-up:

Any advice would be great.

 

 

 

 

I have begun drawing, drawing, drawing. First on paper, then in Illustrator. I have been looking through my photographs from the arcades in Paris, still loving the strange netting on the roofs and curved ceiling lights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am ‘circling’ around many ideas; at the moment I am thinking of an installation of many multiples. I will write more about the concepts underlying the work in a future blog, for now I would like to give a brief visual flavour of what i am thinking.

Here are my first experiments, in paper:

 

 

 

 

 

 

and water jet cut in pre-enamelled steel. They will change quality once they are ‘properly’ enamelled.