Sunday 7 April 2013

Émail. First attempt



French for enamel is émail*. No computer technology involved in painting liquid enamel (powdered glass) on to copper plates, drawing into the enamel once dry, and then firing in a kiln at 800 degrees celsius.
Wonderful to watch the unpredictable (to me) colours that appear as the metal cools, and to see the black firescale crack and jump off the copper where no enamel has been applied. An addictive process. This photo misses the gloss of the enamel and the gleam of the copper.

* Appearance of random bits of french due to french husband.

Monday 1 April 2013

Laser cut agricultural music

After a long gap, another posting. Samples of laser cutting on wood and a laurel leaf. I have no idea what these esoteric symbols mean, but I call them agricultural music. Watching the laser beam is fascinating: apparently random jumping as it cuts, not a systematic start at one end of the image as I would have imagined. Then a wonderful bonfire smell when the cutting is complete. Hi-tech mixes with memories of my childhood garden.