Preparing for an exhibition

I am now in the process of preparing for an exhibition of enamels due to open on the 1st October at the Pannett Art Gallery, Pannett Park, Whitby.  I will be exhibiting enamel panels alongside Margaret Hopley and Harry Nicholson, both also members of the Guild of Enamellers.

I am quite enjoying reviewing some of my older pieces of work as well as creating some new work at a slightly larger scale than anything I have done in recent years.  

These are three of the older pieces and are all enamel on copper and inspired by my local landscape.

This one is fresh from the kiln, so supported on fire bricks and still probably cooling at the point when I took the photograph.  It is enamel on steel, a medium new to me and I have been enjoying exploring the reaction of combining leaded and unleaded enamels.  It is 25cm square and slightly brighter colours than it looks in this photograph, taken quite late this evening after a long day of working at the kiln.

Rachel's project

Rachel's project was inspired by the Gothic.  She has used a wide variety of media and I haven't managed to get pictures of the finished pieces as she took them away to finish off at college.  She has learned to saw, solder, file and polish; enamel on copper and to make lamp worked glass beads (and is a bit of a demon with the torch now).  The bracelet combines textured and enamelled copper panels and is not quite finished in this picture as she has also made a ring that will be attached to it.  She also used faux bone and polymer clay in some of her development work.  For the enamelling on the bracelet she has used a scraffito technique on two of the panels and embedded tiny glass beads into the surface of the enamel on another two.  I hope she will continue to explore these ideas and techniques.