ENAMELS are specialized glasses - complex compounds of clear glass, metal oxides (for colour), and other materials which have been melted together. The manufacture of brilliant enamel glasses in their myriad opaque, opalescent and transparent colours is an ancient art.

ENAMEL is also the word used to describe a metal object (generally copper, silver or gold) which has been decorated with powdered glass and fired at a high temperature until the glass has become red-hot and melted to smoothness

At about 1500° Fahrenheit the firing process fuses the enamel permanently to the metal base and in the case of more complex designs may be repeated in excess of 30 times.

Even the simplest cloisonné pieces receive a minimum of four firings

Before each firing the enamel surface is ground by hand and machine to remove defects.

Further layers of opaque and/or transparent enamels are added and when the desired effect has been achieved, a final series of fine grinding operations and a last high-temperature firing are carried out.

The completed enamel is then polished to a jewel-like brilliance

There are many techniques employed in the making of fine enamels; CLOISONNÉ ( a French word meaning approximately 'the walls that form the cell' ) is of most interest to me.

Various gauges of pure silver wire are formed into the required patterns and attached to the metal base. The CLOISONS (areas enclosed by silver wire) are filled with coloured enamels, then fired, ground, and refilled.

These steps are repeated as many times as necessary. Cloisonné pieces such as these require many hours of painstaking handwork in their manufacture - few Western craftsmen work in this medium.

Each piece is unique and recognizably different from each other piece of a similar design. All pieces are serial-numbered. A Cloisonné enamel can be expected, with reasonable care, to last for centuries without appreciable diminution of its beauty.

Tabernacle, new St Francis of Assisi church
Mill Park, Melbourne, Australia
999 silver cloisonné enamel on 6swg copper
with 999 silver & 24k gold foils

click to enlarge

BACK to CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL GALLERY 4