Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A Little Copper Pendant

I love creating these little copper enameled pendants. Its really takes a lot more time to create one of these, than it does one of the glass pieces. It's true that fused glass requires much more kiln time. Mine are generally in the kiln 8 hours or more when cooling time is factored in.

The copper goes in and out of a really hot kiln multiple times, but it's all very quick. To create this little one, I cut the shape out of a piece of copper using snips, filed off the rough edges, hammered it and created an indention in the middle, drilled a hole, and then I used a torch to burn off any oil left by my fingers.

Once clean, I sprayed with an adhesive, sifted it with enamel powder, and stuck it into the hot and ready kiln. In a matter of minutes, the powder had fused to the metal. This process was repeated several times with different powders until I like the effect and color.

On this one, I put glass jewels or chunks into the indented area and fired to melt into a liquid pool.

Once it was cool, I added a copper jump ring and soldered it closed.

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