Enamelling with Linda Darty

I've just returned from Melbourne where I had a weeks course on enamelling with US tutor Linda Darty. It was a great opportunity as Linda is a world authority on enamelling. She is a first class teacher and was willing to share her knowledge with her students. The course was run by Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). I shared an apartment with two friends Cindy Durant and Jen Tattum which was within walking distance to the University Campus. Enameal is powdered glass that is fused by firing onto metal or ceramics. Linda showed us many samples and we spent the week trying out the different techiques. I particularly like the cloisonne technique where thin ribbons of wire are fused to a metal base. The enamel is packed around the wires until flush with the top of the wires. Here is a photo of my sample that I started in class.

These are some photos of Linda's cloisonne pieces.

The week went really quickly as the course started at 9.30am and finished at 4.30pm although we stayed working until 5 or 6 p.m some nights. Here are some more photos that I took during the week.

Jen and myself working our cloisonnes.

Class photo

When I booked with RMIT there were supposed to be 12 students in the class. However there were 15 students working in the room and there wasn't alot of space.

Student's samples

I'm looking forward to using the enamells on my fine silver jewellery.