Is an artist or craftsman ever truly satisfied with their achievements? An interesting question and whilst I think everyone will have their own answer to this, I think overall the answer is probably ‘no’. A very well known Enamel artist once said to me that it often took many ‘final’ firings before he achieved a finish he could live with. I totally get that! However, over the past year I have worked hard to really improve the final finish of my cloisonné enamel work and I think I am making progress. Here are my latest Hothouse Flower pendants.
Both of these have a beautifully smooth and shiny finish which is I think the hardest to achieve. I am constantly experimenting with technique and both of these used my JoolTool combined with a fire finish and then a final polish with diamond paste using a felt mop in my Foredom pendant motor. Both of these had issues to be resolved during the making. This is usually the case and it is rarely that everything goes absolutely perfectly at every stage. However, the workshop fairies were on my side together with the Kiln gods and I am really happy to say that I can absolutely live with the finish on these pieces.
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