Alice Alper-Rein        JEWELRY BY Y2A, Ltd.
Fine Contemporary Art Jewelry in Silver and Gold
            

PMC TIPS TRICKS AND TECHNIQUES FOR: 
USING ENAMELS WITH PMC

By: Alice Alper-Rein

Add vibrant bursts of color to your PMC creations with glass enamel powders. Fine silver is the perfect surface upon which to apply enamel since it doesn’t fire scale. A person could spend a lifetime learning the ins and outs of enameling but here are some easy methods, adapted for PMC to get you started:

1.  When creating a PMC piece for enameling, use a minimum 6 card thickness (7 card thickness if a texture will be added) of PMC+ or PMC3 (enameling on thinner pieces will require counter-enameling on the back of the piece)

2.   Instead of using fine silver cloisonné wire to created cells to fill with different enamel colors, use a PMC syringe to simulate cloisonné wire. Use water or PMC slip to close any gaps between the base and the syringe drawn “wires.”

3.   If you prefer, you can create your syringe drawing separately, dry it and then add it to the base clay using slip and/or water, instead of creating a freehand drawing with the syringe directly on the base clay. Here’s how:   Place your artwork under a lubricated, clear plastic page protector. Use a syringe to trace the design on top of the plastic. Dry it right on the plastic. When the syringe drawing is dry, carefully move it into place on top of the base clay. Moisten the syringe drawing with water so it softens up enough to snuggly fit on the base clay. Reinforce it with thin slip.

4.   Deeply textured rubber stamps also create wonderful “cells” to fill with enamels. It’s the raised designs on rubber stamps that create the depressions in the clay to fill with enamel powders.

5.   All bails, holes for jump rings and pin backs need to be in place BEFORE the piece is enameled, so make them a part of your design.

6.   When initially firing the PMC piece that will later be enameled (even when using PMC3), fire to 1650 for at least 10 minutes. This will insure that the piece won’t continue to shrink when fired to temperatures of 1475°F-1500F, which is the temperature required for enamel powders to fuse to the silver.

7.  After the pmc piece has been fired, in addition to burnishing it with a stainless steel brush and tumbling in mixed stainless steel shot, use a hand held burnishing tool, the side of a stainless steel spoon or a polishing point on a rotary tool to make sure all the pores are closed. Wash in soapy water.

8.  Use transparent enamels to let the silver shine through. For PMC use, purchase 80 mesh, Medium Temperature, Medium Expansion Enamels.

  9. Film canisters or single portion fast food cups are wonderful to wash and store enamel powders in because they have lids.

  10. Mark the containers with the color of enamel contained inside. Many enamels colors look similar before they are fired.

  11. It’s very helpful to make a drawing of the piece you are enameling to help keep track of the colors used in the different cells, since enamel powders look different after they are fired.

  12.  It is well known that non-lead bearing blue glass enamel powders and green glass enamel powders look beautiful on PMC. Some other enamel colors look muddy when used directly on PMC. The charts that enamel companies publish of how enamels are supposed to look on silver are printed on paper and are not always accurate. The best way to really know how a certain enamel color will look on your project is to fire up an enamel sample sheet.  My favorite "surprise" enamel color find is Geranium Pink. According to the charts, it's supposed to fire to a beautiful light pink on silver. Instead, it fires to a rich orange.

  13. Here’s another use for those PMC pieces that didn’t turn out as you would have liked. Use them to test how enamels colors will look on fine silver, before adding the enamel to your current pieces. Besides the color testing aspects of this tip, you might be pleasantly surprised with the transformation of the rejected pieces once the colorful enamel has been added to them.

14.  Colors that are unattractive when fired directly onto silver might look great by applying them in a second firing over opaque white enamel or a clear flux enamel specifically made for silver and/or lowering firing times Fire testing base enamels with a color on top on a scrap piece is a good idea.

15.  Enamel powders can be sifted onto silver. If you sift enamels onto your project, wear a dust mask to avoid breathing in the fine glass dust. A holding agent like Klyr-fire can be used to “catch” and hold the enamel powder in place. Tap off any excess enamel powder not clinging to the holding agent.

16.  Save any excess enamel powder for counter-enameling projects

17.  Use a dry paintbrush to clean the enamel powder off areas you want to remain uncoated.

18.  Another method of enameling is wet-packing. Pour some enamel powder into a small jar. Add some water, swish it around, let it settle. Pour off the water. Repeat 2-3 times. A holding agent like Klyr-fire can be used. Use a fine tipped paint brush to pack a thin layer of wet enamel into the cloisonné’s. Add one color at each firing

19. The top of the hot kiln is a good place to thoroughly dry the enamel powder before firing. Use mica sheets to keep the top of the kiln and the inside of the kiln clean from possible spills.

  20.  Enamel at 1450F-1500F for 3 minutes. Set your kiln to hold at 1510 for one or two hours to compensate for the constant opening and closing of the door during enameling. Use an egg timer to time each 3 minute kiln session.

21. Want to add a surprise element to your PMC hollow forms, like lentil beads or lacy beads, amphoras and boxes? Consider enameling the INSIDE of these forms. Here’s how: Drizzle or use a paint brush to add a holding agent like Klyr Fire to the inside of your fired and burnished PMC form. Sift or spoon enamel powder inside the form and swish it around. Pour off the excess. Allow the enamel powder to dry by placing the piece onto a sheet of mica and resting it on top of a warm kiln. When the enamel powder is dry, transfer the piece onto a kiln shelf (still on the mica) and place into the kiln. Fire for 3 minutes at 1500F. Repeat to add more enamel as necessary

  22.  Add color to PMC by mixing Glass Enamel powders into PMC3. Follow Mary Ellin D’Agostino’s formula. The ratio is 2 parts enamel powder to one part PMC3. Blues and Greens work best. Mix and create as usual. Dry completely before firing. Fire at 1470F-1500F for 10 minutes.

  23. To use warm colors like red and orange on silver, consider using lead bearing enamel powders for a true color. Always employ proper safety methods when using lead bearing enamels. Another option when using warm colors on silver is to first fire a clear flux for silver into the cell, adding gold foil on top of that, with the warm color enamel on top. Adjust the enameling temperature downward as needed.