Enameling Discs ... the Super Easy Way!

Torch-Fired Enamel Pendant and Saucers

When I was in college I had an art professor who said, "I finally "get" Color Theory after having taught it for five years!" I guess teaching does reinforce your existing knowledge of the subject, which is what I experienced when I had a couple of ladies over on Monday for a Painting with Fire Workshop. I said, "The pwf technique makes enameling teeny tiny discs super easy!  Imagine if you had to torch fire these discs the "other way" ... where you clean the metal, spray it with Klyr-fire, sift the enamel, then carry it to the trivet.  By the time I'd get it there the enamel would be knocked off of the edges!"  For you see, with the pwf method, you put the disc on a mandrel, take it for a whirl in the flame, and in about 40 seconds you're finished!

So enameling the 6mm discs you can punch with the Swanstrom disc cutter is no big deal. I made these in my St. Pete studio.  Unfortunately I realized that I didn't have a way to make a hole ... no two-hole punch or drill bits.  So I used a screw to punch a little hole in the metal and filed the backside of the disc to enlarge it.

These colors remind me of Easter ... and of some of the necklaces draping the displays in Forever 21 ... a favorite shop of my daughter's.  It looks like a trend right now is necklaces of yards of chain and soft pastels.  Are you thinking forward to Spring and to a change in your color palette?  Do you have a favorite color ... is it an old standby or a new one for you?