In Australia right now, you would expect some roaring summer temperatures. Not so! We are having the coolest summer ever I think. Fortunately I have been firing so my kiln is warming my studio very nicely.

I would like to tell you a little about an adventure I have been having over the last few years. I have been fortunate to make a delightful connection in Japan through contributing to some International Exhibitions there. In 2007 I received a grant from the Australia Council to go and study Japanese enamelling techniques with a gentleman who has become my mentor and dear friend. Mr Sakurai is now eighty eight years old and has worked for his company, the Ando Cloisonne Company, all his life. So you can see he has a depth and breadth of experience and understanding that is truly impressive.

I have been back to study with him three times since then and on each visit I have concentrated on a particular technique. In my practice, I wanted to be able to work on a larger scale. I completed a post graduate year of studies in 2006 where I worked on larger forms utilising low firing temperatures to create richly textured surfaces. The image below is from a grouping of work based on bushfires. As you know, we have plenty of fierce bushfires in Australia and after one event near my old house, I went out and photographed the ravaged areas over a few months. It is amazing to see the devestated blackened and ashen ground gradually give way to the tiny and delicate green and ruby shoots of new growth.

Now, my Japanese studies have allowed me to return to using cloissone and start exploring it on smaller vessels.

There were two techniques I studied at first; Yusen Shippo and Doro Shippo. Yusen Shippo is really the same as Cloisonne work (shippo being enamel). I have used Cloisonne for years, though now I was learning to apply the wires to a three-dimensional object. This was quite challenging and I learned many interesting tricks. The second technique, Doro Shippo, is actually about the enamel. That is, Doro is a primitive form of enamel that has a rather stone-like quality when fired. It is pretty finely ground, so when mixed with water, it’s quite like working with mud!

I have started working on two brooches using the Doro Shippo. As I have had quite a break from work while re-establishing my studio, it takes some time (and often some dud enamelling) before I get in the zone again. So, start small and work slowly. Don’t make assumptions!

So, I never did introduce you to my studio…

Hi, my name is Astrid. I work and live in Bremen, Germany. I have studied jewellery design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Pforzheim’. I graduated 2003. Since then I am working on my own. I am doing a lot of jewellery without the enamel.Yet, I am very excited about the project, because it challanges me to try some new work in enamel which I had in my mind for some time.

hello fellow heat exchangers,

my name is Cath and I recently completed an MA at UWE where I met Elizabeth Turrell. Her enthusiasm for enamel led me to experiment on steel as a drawing substrate and consequently I became fascinated in applying enamel to found objects.

I am currently researching coal-industries within Wales, exploring a means of translating and recoding history to relate a duality between terrible working conditions in a coal-pit with the solidarity of social communities. I am motivated by a sense of mortality positioned in the moment, the power of ordinary objects to convey a sense of humanity, and notions of morality within shifting, ideological perspectives.

In making cast-iron replicas of utilitarian mining-artefacts I hope to simultaneously create an illusion of authenticity with sculptural solidity – like a paperweight, to hold firm or make resilient a snap-shot of history. Through a remnant object I want to capture the implication  of what was there seen through what remains. The heavy material acts as a metaphor for weight of subject matter, giving the impression of permanence to a forgotten industry.

Through my experimentation with enamel I have had some partial success using decals to apply documentary photographs to the 3d cast objects. But I have also discovered infinite technical problems resulting from the porous nature of iron and defects in the material I have access to: my inability to solve these problems has resulted in an interest to take advantage of them: I hope to use this Heat Exchange opportunity to develop a more exploratory approach to enamel on iron, to embrace the learning possibilities of a dialogue exchange.

I am so excited to participate and very nervous about my limited time. This opportunity is particularly significant to me because it holds my focus on enamel processes and demonstrates my need to create a new studio environment. I look forward to hearing how everyone’s response to Heat Exchange unfolds…