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.
Quite a while back I finished working on the objects that I enamelled in Erfurt (earlier posts here and here), the Jewel for a Wall piece. The name reflects that the parts assemble into a single object suitable for display on a wall, while many of the individual components are human-wearable as well as wall-adornable.
Not long after their completion I realised that these would not be what I will exhibit in Heat Exchange 2. These works were conceived quickly to illustrate the potential of using a base shape that when aggregated could become a tessellated pattern or alternately, used singly or in small groupings as a stand-alone piece. And to illustrate that idea they worked perfectly. However, the evolution of the themes that I’m working with in the rest of my practice has reached a point where the investigations happening in my hand-cut works are becoming bigger, involving objects that take days to cut by hand. I’m at a point where it makes sense to use the laser cutter to do that work for me. So I’m designing a piece that will be cut quickly and enamelled slowly, and be in alignment with the research I have been doing on weapons for those works.
Jewel for a Wall has been instructive, and, like the necklace pieces that I put up here in my last post (which were a trial for what went on to be 3/4’s of a piece with Sean Macmillan called Quatrefoil Quartet), it demonstrates the strategies and processes that the new works will build on.
I’ve vague ideas for what I’m making, and as yet no plan drawing to show you what it will look like, but Jewel for a Wall and the complete Quatrefoil Quartet are the best indicators I have to give you a feel of what my research is pointing towards, and what that might look like.
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.
So I’m working on another exhibition at the moment, for which I’ve produced these sample squares of a new pattern. A friend of mine, the head of jewellery and objects at Slippery Rock University in Pensylvania, Sean Macmillan, got in contact with me to see if I would be interested in collaborating with him for the Co:operation GARNISH exhibition. This show, being curated by Rachel Timmins and Brigitte Martin, is meant to be a collaboration of unlike forces aimed at building links between a fairly disparate jewellery community here in the US. After some initial discussions about our suitability to pair up (we are technically both metalsmiths) we decided that a large-sculpture-making, techno-challenged academic in Slippery Rock and a delicate-jewellery-making, CAD-using, basement-studio-hermit from Australia now living in Seattle was about as different as we needed to be!
Ttrue to my usual method, I got straight into drawing a pattern in Cad, which we had both agreed over a long text-message conversation, needed to be ‘lacy’ (see images). And true to his, Sean soon texted me a mobile-phone image of his hand-built model, a roughly sketched and assembled pattern – in the way of a garment pattern – made out of used computer-paper and masking-tape.
Cut to a few months later, and here are some images of the sample squares of pattern that I’ve had cut, checked out and then sent off to Sean to play with. (Notice the miscommunication with the laser-cutters resulted in the lead-ins being on the wrong side of the line – we’re after the sheet more than the ‘drop-outs’ in this instance as that’s what Sean will work with.)
And here’s the first test works! These necklaces are in stainless steel and vitreous enamel with titanium hinge pins. As test pieces – a sort of proof of concept – I think they are pretty successful.
The actual part that will allow Sean to work his magic was signed off by us today, and will be cut by Pololu early next week. Once Sean has the pieces he will send me all of these inserts and I’ll have some more enamelling to do!
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.
Sorry for the radio silence from this end – I’ve not been in the office much of late – I’ve been in the basement, making things out of all of the enamelled pieces I brought back from Erfurt with me (and sandblasting back one errant piece that never quite found what colour it wanted to be.)
This pic is taken of a bunch of brooch backs that were prepped ready to be sandblasted back with glass beads. The pins were polished up before welding, so I enlisted the fingers of a latex glove to save the shiny pins from any misdirected sprays of the blast nozzle.
The obverse was then covered in masking tape to protect the enamelled side from the same. The ‘front’ sides were not intended to be lifted from the mesh floor on the interior of the blast cabinet, but you can never be to careful with the sandblaster – the air pressure alone had a tendency to knock things around.
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.
Here we are, making work for Heat Exchange 2! In the two years that has passed since the last edition not much has changed.. Oh who am I kidding? This iteration of the exhibition finds me living in the USA, surrounded by the welcoming and very vibrant metals community in Seattle, Washington.
Owing to my personal cross-continental exchange, I have had the pleasure of catching a couple of other Heat Exchange participants already this year. I visited Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in February where I caught up with the dynamic Susie Ganch. We were concentrating on her Radical Jewelry Makeover project at the time but we managed to share a few thoughts on enamel while she gave me a walking tour of her city.
Next up, I was at SNAG where Robert Ebendorf was honoured as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. I’d like to say I managed to snap a selfie while the two of us shared a few words, but with SNAG conferences being what they are, after his award ceremony I did not spot him for the rest of the weekend! So, please excuse the grainy photos of Robert, but as you can appreciate the auditorium was full for his award ceremony.
So that just leaves me. Here’s me in my basement studio in Seattle, about to face a moment of truth…
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.
Finally! Here are some images of the Heat Exchange works installed. All pictures were taken at the Shemer Museum and Arts Center in Scottsdale, AZ in the USA. Enjoy!
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.
Last week we installed and opened the Heat Exchange exhibition. Below are some images from the opening at the Shemer Art Gallery and Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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.
In response to Melissa’s comment about embedding the finding for an enameled piece, I thought I would add a few images as to how I do this for welding, then enameling. I am trying something new and this is how I do it.
First, of course, I fabricate the pin back finding. For a vertical piece I use a “barrette” style pin back. After I make the findings, I hard or IT solder wires into tiny holes that I have drilled into the back of the findings. In some cases, I use pins that go through form front to back to avoid soldering that could melt during enameling process. I then feed the wires through matching holes that I have drilled into the back of the brooch before welding. Before I do that, I chase a seat for the finding so that there is a place for it to rest and a place for the enamel to pool around the finding.
I then turn over the piece so that the wires are exposed and with a mini torch, I ball up the wires until they lay flush with the interior surface. I then weld the two halves together and enamel. The most difficult part of this is to weld the copper without melting the silver findings as the melt temperatures between silver and copper are so different.
balled up wires on the interior before welding
exterior with findings before welding
front of brooch after welding
front of brooch after enameling and before etching
brooch, before welding-how to protect findings
findings after welding
front of brooch after welding
front of brooch after enaneling and before etchingback of brooch with findings-before clean-up and etching
Kathleen Browne is an artist and educator from the USA who featured in our first Heat Exchange edition in 2012, and is back for the 2015 exhibition.
My name is Arthur Hash. I work as professional faculty in the Metal program here at the State University of New York at New Paltz. For the last ten years I have been incorporating digital processes (laser engraving, water-jet cutting, 3D printing and CNC milling) into my studio practice. At an early age I was exposed to computers, mostly video games. In high school, as part of a technology and design class, I was encouraged to experiment with AutoCAD (a 3D digital drafting program). Years later, I find myself using CAD software as a sketching tool. I use it everyday, sketching out objects in virtual space.
In the world of 3D digital modeling, surfaces are comprised of small polygons or facets. I view these facets as almost a resolution for 3D objects. It is very similar to digital images. A high resolution digital photo may have 600 ppi or pixel per inch where as a low resolution images might have a lower count. Maybe around 72 ppi. In 3D digital modeling, a HIGH resolution 3D digital surface may have up to 300,000 polygons or more. By increasing the number of polygons the surface becomes smoother and smoother. A lower polygon count produces a faceted object. For example, picture the facets on the surface of a soccer ball. If we double the polygon count then it is more like the divots in a golf ball. Double it again. Now the surface is more like texture of an orange. Once doubled again the surface might be completely smooth not noticeable by the human eye.
Using a laser engraver I have started a new body of work. I consider these pieces miniature, wearable “drawings”. They are flat projections of 3D digital surfaces. The polygon count has been reduced and the result is an etching that creates a jewel-like faceted surface on the enamel.
The heat of the laser, which burns the enamel at around 2500 degrees Fahrenheit actually “selectively over-fires” the enamel, vaporizing the silica. The result is a black line that is recessed into the enamel leaving a texture. The part of the enamel that is left retains its shine from the original firing.
I have made this short video to show you how the laser works when etching enamel on copper.
For more information please visit my website and blog. I look forward to posting more images and videos.
We’d like to introduce the artists participating in Heat Exchange. Below is an image of each of their works.
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.