6/25/19 6/25/19

"There and Not There:" The Enamel Art of René Roberts

René Roberts, recently featured in our exhibit with the Richmond Art Center, shares some of the technical and creative challenges of creating this series—and her beautiful solutions.

8/28/17 8/28/17

A Wealth of Experience: Pat Johnson's Landmark Book, Enamelling on Copper

The simple title, Enamelling on Copper, suggests the two most important aspects of this landmark book. Pat Johnson, who lives in the UK, has written a book that draws directly on her wealth of experience with enamel and its interactions with her chosen metal substrate, copper.

4/14/17 4/14/17

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?

9/26/16 9/26/16

Kat Cole Enamels Her Work at KVO Industries, Part 3

This is the eighth in a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole. This post previously appeared on her blog.

9/21/16 9/21/16

Kat Cole Enamels Her Work at KVO Industries, Part 2

This is the seventh in a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole. This post previously appeared on her blog.

9/20/16 9/20/16

Kat Cole Enamels Her Work at KVO Industries, Part 1

This is the sixth in a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole. This post previously appeared on her blog.

KVO is a small company running impressive facilities with incredible possibilities. They have made signage for the state and national park systems, large-scale outdoor images for cities and museums, and worked with artists to re-create images of their work in enamel for public projects.

9/12/16 9/12/16

Kat Cole Crates and Ships Steel Pieces to KVO Industries

This is the fifth in a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole. This post previously appeared on her blog.

The more sculpture I make, the more I realize one of the biggest hurdles is shipping. It is not as easy as picking up a flat rate USPS priority box and making sure to insure it, which is usually simple and inexpensive when shipping jewelry and small objects. The logistics of transporting these three- to four-foot panels to and from California has been one of the more stressful components of this project.

9/8/16 9/8/16

Construction of Kat Cole's Piece Begins at KVO Industries

This is the fourth in a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole. This post previously appeared on her blog.

As I prepared to build the pieces, I asked for assistance from the experts at KVO Industries about fabricating and their construction techniques. Just as in jewelry, the function of these panels have to be considered in the design phase.

7/21/16 7/21/16

Art and the Enamel Industry w/ Kat Cole

We are thrilled to introduce a series of guest posts by the enamel artist Kat Cole.

Today the term “Enameling” is generally used to mean small, intensively crafted, jewel-like work, set into wearable or functional objects. But in the not-so-distant past, enamelists commonly worked much larger, on art pieces the size of a painter’s oversized canvas.

6/9/16 6/9/16

How Now Fred Ball?

Recently, I have been wondering about the legacy of one the most important American enamelists of the 20^th century, Fred Uhl Ball (1945-1985). I never met him, though he lived, worked and taught in Sacramento, CA, about an hour from my home, and frequented the supply store in San Francisco where I bought my enamels. But even in absentia, Ball was a mentor to me. His book, Experimental Techniques in Enameling (1972), came out the same year I began enameling professionally, and formed the basis of my journey into enameling.

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