More playing with torched enamelling- its more about finding a rally good set up for the torch under the pieces and not burning out screens as I know first timers will do .
Sifted enamel (black) for counter enamelling on the copper pieces
Placed on the wire mesh - the side facing down is raw copper that the torch will hit and will worry about fire firescale (will give tips on this in a later post when I test it out- see if it works same as in the kiln and cleaning after )
after torching - not totally smooth - sort of orange peel - better to not go full smooth fuse as your going to hit it again with the torch - overfiring has the enamel pull away from the edges
Fire scale on underside - take an emery board to go around edges and some surface - or put into a pickle - sandpaper on a dremel is fast or by hand - or steel wool
clean up and sift enamel onto the cleaned side
you cant put the piece back on the mesh as it would stick (the counter enamel would melt) so you need to use a trivet that will just hold the sides where there is no enamel .
I set to the corner so I can get under the piece to fire - through the screen I find you have to hold too close to the screen and thus burn out the screen.
I used my 11 year old granddaughter as a student and taught her how to do it
the first piece I helped a little with the torch as it can be kind of scary for an 11 year old
Very happy crafter
then she made by herself a present for her younder sisters birthday this week
she sifted herself - counter enamelled and then put on trivet and fired the top (from underneath)
she actually fired twice as she wanted an eye put on the piece
Her sister loved it
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