News & Blog
Featured stories, resources for the enameling community, and the latest from CEA
Think Big, Really Big! Enameled Furniture Old and New
From the ’30s to the ’60s, large-scale enamel works like signage were common, and so were the industrial facilities that produced them. Artists like Edward Winter and John Puskas made oversized 2D works on steel, and some innovative designers like John Keal added sheets of enameled copper and steel to wood tables.
T Magazine Features Enamelwork… Without Using the Word Enamel
The good news is that the latest issue of T Magazine has a lush spread devoted to enameled jewelry and objects new and old. (Click here to read the article.) The luminous boxes of Jean Goulden rub shoulders with the incredible miniature artworks that are Alice Cicolini’s rings and Morelli’s meditation bells.
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.
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.
A Lifeline for Enamelists: Coral Shaffer and Enamelwork Supply
Coral Shaffer and her one-woman business, Enamelwork Supply, are an essential part of the enameling community today, supplying artists and production enamelists worldwide with hard-to-find enamels, tools, and expert advice.
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?
Technical challenge: Liquid enamel on formed copper
Enameling is an art, but it is also a technical process, and part of the art is solving the technical challenges. Our blog editor, Lauren, works with enamel as well as writes for a living, and she has shared with us her problem-solving process for a recent piece.
Finished! Kat Cole Installs Her Piece
This is the last in a series of posts by enamel artist Kat Cole about a public installation she created at KVO Industries and installed in the Cedars neighborhood in Dallas. This post previously appeared on her blog. Thank you, Kat, for sharing the journey with us!
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.