Transparent Enamels with Silver and Gold Foils on Copper. Enamel Flash Course with Barbara Minor

Participants will explore methods Barbara uses for increasing depth, complexity, details, and maximum transparency while gaining essential information and skills for successful transparent enameling and achieving a wide range of colors.


Title: Transparent enamels with silver and gold foils on copper.
Schedule: 8 Hours 2 Days.
Price: 400 €.
A basic understanding of enameling is recommended, but not required.


Enamel basics covered will include:

• Metals to enamel on.
• Fast and effective methods of cleaning metal before transparent enameling.
• How to clean/prepare transparent enamels – washing vs. Grade sifting.
• Reasons for using graded sifters to clean enamel.
• Tr enamel particle size choice for sifted applications.
• Counter enamel.
• Sifted enamel application methods on flat and slightly formed metal.
• Layering transparent colors for depth, detail, and (most importantly) for achieving maximum clarity.
• Use of sgraffito, stencils, and dry screen printing* direct on copper to utilize fire-scale development as a design detail.
• Subtle integration of textured metal under transparent enamels
• Methods for emphasizing the textured metal under transparent enamels.
• Cutting and application methods for gold and silver foil - patterns vs. large shapes.
• Color choices – which tr colors do/don’t work well directly on copper and silver.
• Edge finishing.

About the teacher: Barbara Minor was raised in Chicago, Illinois. She studied the art form of jewelry and metalsmithing as an undergraduate student. The addition and love for enamelling in combination with metalworking and jewelry making began during graduate school, with continued exploration during the following ten years of university teaching. Barbara left the university with a desire to spend her professional life as a full-time studio artist. She spent the next twenty years creating and marketing her enameled jewelry in galleries and by participating in prestigious juried craft shows such as the American Craft Council Craft Shows and the Philadelphia Museum Craft Show. Her work can be seen in publications such as The Art of Enameling, 500 Enamel Objects, 500 Brooches and The Penland Book of Metalworking.

Underlying and driving the development and execution of my enamelled jewelry is a love for color, working with metal and explorative research of formal, technical and material concerns relative to enamelling. Results often begin with asking the question “what if”. My research-oriented studio practice leads both to the perfection of traditional methods and to unexpected experimental results. When the processes are reliably repeatable, they become useable in my finished jewelry. My visual influences derive from historical, architectural, or botanical references and are impacted by images from current favorite locations. Surface, form, functionality, technical excellence, beauty, and visually stimulating results are carefully considered while researching an idea, developing appropriate technical applications, and finally designing and making jewelry or objects. // Barbara Minor

Barbara now focuses her studio practice on researching and innovating enamel processes, preparing for teaching workshops at craft schools and colleges and creating very special enameled jewelry and objects that utilize her well-developed enamelling and metalworking skills.

I believe that in-depth visual, conceptual, and technical investigation along with experimentation provides increased expertise, continual discovery, and heightened aesthetic development.
/ Barbara Minor