Thursday, February 03, 2011

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.

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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."

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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."

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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.