Archive for Tools & Supplies

Scott Ellis: Bringing New Growth to an Old Industry

For most businessmen, enameling is an obscure craft. But Scott Ellis has family connections to the industry, and he understood its appeal–and its potential as a business opportunity. His online business, e-namels.com, started as a clearinghouse for surplus enamels, but has expanded to carry an extraordinary range of foreign-made, specialty, and out-of-production enamels. Here, as part of our Tools and Supplies series, Ellis discusses the evolution of his business and how he plans to make life easier for the production artist.

 

Scott Ellis with some of his stock of out-of-production enamels that he sells on his website, http://www.e-namels.com/.

Center for Enamel Art: How did you get started with your business?

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Tools and Supplies: A Conundrum, Part 1

Here is a conundrum: If vitreous enamels, and related tools and supplies, aren’t readily available, people can’t enamel.  If people can’t enamel, suppliers can’t sell supplies.  This chicken-and-egg problem is a huge obstacle for the growth of enameling in the U.S. and worldwide. How do people who use vitreous enamel deal with this conundrum? How does it shape enameling today, and how will it affect enameling’s future?

Share the Heat is pleased to announce a series of blogposts about tools and supplies for the enameling community. We will be examining the state of supply availability in interviews with several small independent U.S. suppliers, including Coral Shaffer of Enamelwork Supply, and Scott Ellis of e-namels.com. We will also be posting insider tips on how to find supply resources.

  • Part 1 of this introduction will give a little background and recent history in order to put the tool/supply conundrum into perspective. It will focus on why supplies, especially enamel powders  are not easy to find; why there is not much diversity in enamels that are available for sale; and why quality and customer service are sometimes problematic.
  • Part 2 will be about industrial enameling supplies and tools specific to enameling, such as firing  and application tools.
  • Part 3 will focus on how the internet has changed availability and information about supplies and supply sources.

The Center for Enamel Art is committed to helping enamelists in their professional development. We believe strongly in the sharing of resources of all kind. We hope that this series of posts begins a much-needed discussion about one problem that has hindered the growth of enameling as a recognized art medium.

 

Where have all the manufacturers gone?

putting enamel in a ball mill

Before Thompson

First, let’s look at the evolution of enameling in the U.S. over the last hundred years.  Read More →

Open Call for Articles

Join the dialogue! 

Helen Elliot critique

Helen Elliott critiquing student work in a Radical Enameling workshop, “Enameled Steel for Large Scale Art: Working in an Industrial Setting”

We want to expand the critical conversation about enameling among enamelists, other artists, collectors, art historians, and the general public. Our goal is to support the growth of enameling as an art practice and help establish it as a respected art form.

We need your help.

We know that our readers are talented, experienced, and opinionated, and we would love to help you reach a broader audience. We are looking for critical contributions on a variety of topics, including Read More →