Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Fun with Scrolling tools

A scrolling tool looks like this.  It is used to drag a design into your enamel while it is still molten in the kiln.  It takes some skill as the kiln is putting out a great deal of heat, the glass is sticky and if the firing tool or the enamel piece gets too cool, the glass will stick to it instead of being guided by it.

Crack the door of your kiln open just enough to fit the tip of the tool into the kiln and pre-heat it.  When you're ready, pull the tool through the enamel on your piece.   Try not to let the tip touch the copper underneath, just the enamel layer on top.  You can achieve some beautiful results like these:

Earrings by  FireWorksCopper



A beautiful pendant by Caroline Fung.  Have fun with it!

9 comments:

supere67 said...

Both of those pieces are gorgeous!

Artisan Beads Plus said...

That is so cool! I am guessing that there are layers of enamel in different colors. Is that correct?
MaryAnn

Kalaya Steede said...

Wow! That scrolling tool looks pretty cool. Both pieces are wonderful!

Honey from the Bee said...

Wow.. very cool! Going to have to give that a try. Thanks for sharing!

Julie Holmes said...

You can use layers MaryAnn, but often it is just a base color of enamel and then some lumps of frit in different colors placed on top. Then you drag the tool through the frit and it makes cool swirls and designs. The glass will be the consistency of really thick molasses. You can get the design in the pair of earrings by dragging the tool through straight stripes of black.

Julie Holmes said...

By the way...Caroline Fung's website is AMAZING. Check out her bead work. It's fabulous.

Kelli said...

Wow. I love this!!!

Sandra said...

beautiful!

Unknown said...

I love these pieces! They are so soulful! So this tool is more likely the pencil, am I correct?

Kirby Wampler

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