''Émail en résille sur verre'' ("enamel in a network on glass") is a rare and difficult
enameling
Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word comes from the Latin ...
technique first practiced for a brief period in seventeenth-century
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
It was later revived by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
metalsmith
A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items (for example, tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewelry, armor and weapons) out of various metals. Smithing is one of the oldest list of metalworking occupations, metalworking o ...
Margret Craver, who encountered the technique in 1953 and spent 13 years re-creating and perfecting it.
Method
The technique involves etching a design in a piece of glass, which is then lined with gold foil and the hollow filled with powdered enamel.
It is difficult to accomplish in part because of the extremely careful regulation of temperature required to fuse the enamel without damaging the glass in which it is embedded.
The edges of the foil form a frame for the enamel, giving the appearance, as artist
William Claude Harper
William C. Harper (born 1944) is an American jewelry artist known for studio craft jewelry.
Biography
Born in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1944. He received a BS in 1966 and an MS in education in 1967, both from Case Western Reserve University in Clevel ...
described it, of "the most delicate cloisonné that you can imagine".
1950s rediscovery
In 1953, metalsmith
Margret Craver saw a pin decorated using the technique.
Craver began studying the technique, researching and testing it over the course of about thirteen years to reproduce it.
Because the technique was not being practiced, and there were no instructional texts in existence, the work was slow, and Craver had to design her own tools. On the technique, Craver said "it took forever, because this was such an ancient technique and no one knew a darn thing about it. I just had to start out and do it myself."
See also
*
Creativity techniques
Creativity techniques are methods that encourage creative actions, whether in the arts or sciences. They focus on a variety of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation and divergent thinking, methods of re-framing problems, ...
*
List of art techniques
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:En resille
Artistic techniques
Jewellery making
Vitreous enamel