Thursday, January 19, 2012

Enameling Cookbook...

In the kitchen, I am notorious for never making the same dish twice.  I am an "intuitive cook" and often work from instinct and half-remembered recipes, improvising in between.  While the results may be "good", they are far from consistent.  Those that eat my food often times lament the fact that I rarely write down my recipes and always hope that lightning strikes twice when I'm trying to replicate a dish.

After I read Torch-Fired Enamel Jewelry: A Workshop in Painting with Fire by Barbara Lewis, I went a little "hog wild" and started enameling everything I could get my hands on.  Like my cooking, I achieved results that I thought were "good" but I definitely noticed that some were better than others.  I found myself in the same boat.  "How did I get that color?  Did I layer this color with this one?  Or was it that one with that one?"  So, in order to combat my natural bad habits, I've decided to create my own personal "Enameling Cookbook" where I store all my "recipes".

Above are some of my first recorded experiments.  It's a rather dull affair; I don't too much care for production work.  But it is a good baseline and I can see definite improvement in my consistency.  Could this mean that I've turned over a new leaf?  Probably not.  But it's an exercise that I'm learning from.

8 comments:

Amy F said...

Those look cool - i just got the torch from her site and I'm excited to get started!

Courtney Breul said...

I should do this as well. I just sit down and play.......

baba paul said...

Smart!! I make notes but then I scramble to figure which recipe is the one I liked!

Kathy Van Kleeck said...

Yeah, I gots to get me that book! Good luck with your experiments .....

AntiquityTravelers said...

Very cool! Love the cookbook idea, and love the colors

Cyndi J said...

I'm taking Barbara's class in her St. Pete studio on Feb. 5 and just got the book! I'm thrilled to see the results you got. I noticed in the tangerine tango post you mentioned using brass beads. I think Barbara's book mentioned that most brass has too high a zinc content but you must have some that don't. Do you mind if I ask where you got them from? Thanks much.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Ornamental Style,

That's great that you're getting to take a class with Barbara in her new space! I'm jealous! She's a fantastic teacher and such a nice person. I adore her!

The beads that I'm using are vintage. I've found them here and there. I'm a smitten kitten with them and if you come across a good wholesale source for them, please pass the word along.

Karen said...

wondered where you got "egg yellow"? is that a Thompson color? i LOVE it! so hard to get a nice rich yellow like that...