Three stainless steel brooches, with fixings already soldered to the backs, sandblasted and awaiting their appointment with the enamel brush. I started enamelling on them on Thursday. (What a tease, I know, but more images of where they’re now at are coming.)
By the way, those of you who work with steel, is the blackening that appears on the un-enamelled parts relatively stable? I’m contemplating leaving some expanses of this untouched. Over the sandblasted steel it’s quite an appealing matte charcoal colour.
Melissa Cameron
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
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Hi, Melissa, on stainless steel it’s very stable as far as I can tell. I am not so sure on mild steel. Which one are you using? Also, waxing might be a good idea, again I am not certain which kind to choose, maybe one of the others will have some advice here?
love Beate
Thanks Beate. It’s mild steel. I usually heat colour my works in stainless (and in titanium – even brighter!) but I’ve never had anything quite that dark before. I have when I used to work in mild steel – and that was generally dipped in engine oil in the studio I learned it. I’ve transitioned to waxing it with something a little lighter – a furniture polish 😉 I’ll give that a go then. Thanks for the heads up! m
Hi Melissa
I’ve found with mild steel that the blackened oxide behaves differently in different situations. Sometimes, it pings or flakes off after firing, sometimes it’s perfectly black and responds well to waxing with caranuba polish. Other pieces I have dipped in baby oil and this seems to work well also. I guess it’s a matter of finding what works best for your setup and desired finish. The spirit of experimentation should help land a consistent result!!
By the way, I still have sandblaster envy 🙂 Cheers
Katrina
I got myself wrong before, I said mild steel, but I meant stainless. I usually go with caranuba on mild steel, and rarely bother on the stainless, since it’s not likely to rust. At this stage I’ve left them as is, though some I have sandblasted to get back to the light grey. I understand the envy, because I do love my sandblaster 😉 It will be for sale soon…