Inspirations of the Enamel Variety -- Jessica Calderwood

Enamels are definitely on my mind. I signed on this week to take a five-day workshop with Charity Hall during Idyllwild metals week. Five entire days focused on drawing and painting with enamels! I thought it appropriate to dredge up an enamel artist from my files who also directs her enamel work toward the drawing and painting directions.

Jessica Calderwood's fabulous wall pieces and jewelry range from meticulously painted portraits to details of body parts. Some are quite humorous, such as the series of curler brooches. I love the superposition of the gold details. Others have more disturbing implications, such as "Consumption."

I find her settings to be quite as intriguing as the enamels themselves, with rotating mounts and double-sided pieces, such as this brooch, "Blink."

An extended exploration of enamels, on both glass and metal, is in the offing for me, since it seems the perfect way to blend my journaling with my jewelry. Today I ordered fine silver sheet to make a load of color samples with the new enamels I purchased at Linda Darty's suggestion. I can't wait to develop a new palette.