Maggie Bergman - Enameling on Copper

You get to play with color in your jewelry, giving you the ability to change the look of your work in a dramatic way! The possibilities for enameling are endless, there are opaque enamels, transparent ones, some are powders, others are liquid, not to mention all the special effect bits & pieces available.

But how to use them all? There is so much to learn and explore!

• How do you prepare the metal?
• Apply the different types of enamel?
• How to fire them?
• And what if you like matte enamels, how is that done?
• Youll find this information and the answers to many other questions in this book

When I first got the idea to write this book I was teaching three groups of students the basics of enameling on copper. These classes were so much fun it got me thinking.....

• What would someone need to get started with enameling at home?
• What is the learning curve they would have, working at home by themselves?
• What are the hardest points to get past, some things might be a bit scary for some people

This gave me the approach I wanted to take for this book.
It needed to be a step by step book, with lots of photos to illustrate every step, of each of the techniques, something a newbie could follow and be successful, while trying to keep the learning curve down as much as possible! It should also be without too much other information, things that might leave you confused or overwhelmed!

Enameling on copper can be a very fast process; this makes it ideal for people who are selling their work, because we all know that time is money!

It is also relatively inexpensive - copper is so much cheaper than silver! And even the simplest technique, sifting, gives great results and is really only limited by your imagination!

I've laid out the techniques in this book in the sequence I use for my studio courses.

We start with he simplest techniques first: these include how to keep yourself and your workspace safe, how to prep your metal and how you go about enameling both sides of your work.

The techniques that follow on from this, all build a strong skill base and if you are a newbie, I suggest you do them in the order of the chapters, one at a time, at least once!

Make sure you go through all the steps and really get the technique under your belt before moving on to the next chapter. I know this approach will feel too slow for some people, but it really is the fastest way to success, I'm sure you get tired of the Hare and the Tortoise story, but it really is true when learning enameling, slow & steady wins the race!