The famous Ipatiev Chronicle brings to us a story about the marvelous creations of Russian jewelers who adorned their products with enamel - a composition of colored glassy powder that hardened after firing, which made it possible to achieve an extraordinary visual effect. This technology came to Russia from Byzantium, where it appeared in the VI century. Nowadays, the old word enamel has gone out of circulation, giving way to the term now used - artistic enamel.
What is decorative enamel?
Before starting a conversation about what constitutes an art technique, called "cloisonne enamel", we dwell in more detail on the description of this very composition used by jewelers and masters of decorative and applied art. As mentioned above, enamel is a powder obtained by grinding colored glassy plates.
Dampened with water and turned into a continuous malleable mass, the composition is applied to the cells made on the surface of the product. The next stage of work is firing. It is produced either in a furnace or with a special gas or gas burner. Under the influence of high temperature (from 700 to 900 ° C), the vitreous mass hardens and takes on its own unique look.
Features of working with enamel
Depending on the composition of the ground vitreous mass, temperature, as well as the firing duration, the resulting enamel may have a different degree of transparency or be completely opaque - deaf. This opens up wide creative possibilities for the master, as he allows to achieve a wide variety of effects.
The range of techniques used in this kind of work is very rich, and one of them is cloisonne enamel. Jewelry made with its use is not widespread and is considered elitist. The reason is the complexity of their manufacture and the inability to mechanize the production process. Each item is a unique copyrighted work. If we also take into account that precious metals are often used in the work, their high price and low availability become clear.
How is cloisonne enamel created?
First of all, on the gold, silver or cupronickel (less often copper or steel) surface, which is the basis of the composition, the contour of the future drawing is engraved and sometimes cut through. Then along its edges metal partitions are soldered, the thickness of which rarely exceeds one millimeter. These partitions, which gave the name to the described type of enamel technique, form both closed and open cells, which are still filled with a liquid and viscous multi-colored mass.
After the enamel hardens during the firing process, the product is ground and polished. This is done in such a way that the surface of the partitions and enamel creates a single plane. The technique of cloisonne enamel is significantly complicated by the fact that during firing, the layer of material undergoes shrinkage and becomes lower than the partition. As a result, you have to replenish the cells and re-burn the product. Depending on a number of technical factors and the artistic intent of the author, firing can be repeated from five to a hundred times.
Unique products and consumer goods
It should be noted that the inability to influence the processes occurring in the enamel when exposed to high temperatures, determines the originality and uniqueness of each product. Twice to achieve the same effect is almost impossible, therefore, each work made in this technique is unique.
Cloisonne enamel is not the only enamel technique in arts and crafts. Along with it, the so-called excavation is also widely used. It differs from the septum in that the glassy composition is not filled by cells formed by soldered partitions, but by specially made recesses, the shape of which corresponds to the lines of the figure. In modern jewelry manufacturing, stamped blanks or castings are usually used for this purpose. In the same industry, in the manufacture of consumer goods, imitation of cloisonne enamel is also used.
The effect of stained glass windows
Cloisonne enamel has another variety. It is called stained glass or window enamel. This technique is characterized in that it does not use a metal base. It got its name due to the fact that products made on its basis resemble the appearance of stained glass windows. They are completely transparent, and light, penetrating through the glassy mass, creates the illusion of colored stained glass framed by metal.
Products made in this technique are unusually beautiful. The metal frame, filled with enamel, looks like a thin lace made of gold, silver or copper. It is made by sawing or mounting and subsequent soldering parts made of a special twisted wire. Colored enamel filling the gaps between the partitions creates an indescribable play of light.
Chinese enamel tradition
In the history of arts and crafts, a special place is occupied by Chinese enamel. Cloisonne enamel, called Clausane, was not the invention of the Chinese themselves, but came to them from France, but received a kind of development due to local national traditions. From her original source, she inherited mainly the name, derived from the warped French word Cloison - "partition". Before the appearance of this type of enamel technology in China, its extraction option was used there.
In the Palace Museum of Beijing, a large variety of works of decorative art are exhibited, among which Chinese enamel stands out. Cloisonne enamel is represented mainly by products of the 15th century from the Xuande and Jingtai period. This is no coincidence, since the period of the Ming dynasty, to which the mentioned rulers belonged, is considered the time of the greatest flowering of this area of art. Based on their own technologies, as well as borrowed in Europe, Chinese craftsmen with extraordinary imagination decorated table and floor vases, cups, candy cans, as well as a variety of lamps.
Art enamel from Georgia
Georgian cloisonne enamel also enjoys special honor among collectors and simply art lovers. Her earliest known samples date back to the 9th century, and they were made using the same technology that is used today. Georgian art, which is distinguished by a peculiar flavor and inexhaustible energy, embodied many European and Eastern traditions. That is why cloisonne enamel so naturally fit into it, the technology of which came to these parts from Western Europe. Here it was not only mastered, but also received further development, thanks to which many masterpieces of the Georgian national school appeared.
Enamel in times past and today
It is known that masters of cloisonne enamel of the past centuries used other components than their modern followers to obtain the composition they needed. In one of the old recipes it is said that for the preparation of enamel one part of pure silica sand, one part of boric acid and two parts of lead meerk are required . To give the composition the desired color, various pigments were used in the form of cadmium, cobalt or copper oxides.
In the XX century, enamel technique went beyond the scope of its traditional use and, in addition to decorative and applied art, began to be used wherever it is required to create a durable and chemically resistant surface. Technical enamels appeared. Accordingly, the technology for their preparation has changed.
Cloisonne enamel: master class
At the end of the article, we give a detailed story about how to make a panel yourself, made in the technique of partition enamel. This kind of master class will allow everyone to try their hand at creating works of decorative art.
First of all, you need to take a copper plate of suitable size and thickness and anneal it until red, and then cool in water. This will give the material softness and prevent deformation during further firing of the enamel itself. After that, the plate is wiped and thoroughly cleaned with sandpaper. You should not achieve a perfectly smooth surface, as light roughness will contribute to a better connection of metal with enamel.
From drawing to installing partitions
The next step is to apply a pattern to the plate. This can be either your own composition, or transferred from the book using tracing paper and carbon paper. To make the image clearer, the plate can be precoated with white gouache. When the designation is indicated, it should be scratched using a steel scriber used in locksmithing. After that, the plate is thoroughly washed and once again calcined on fire.
For the manufacture of partitions, it is recommended to use copper wire with a diameter of about 0.8 millimeters. It is preliminarily passed through rollers or simply flattened with a hammer. The resulting strip is glued edge to plate, exactly repeating the line of the picture. For this work, usually use alcohol glue BF-6.
Enamel and firing
For the manufacture of panels should be used enamel in the form of a powder mass. There are varieties on sale with the addition of gold or silver particles, which gives the product a more expensive and sophisticated look. The powder is diluted with water and the resulting mass fill the gaps between the partitions. For this purpose it is convenient to use a spatula and a brush. It is important that the enamel layer is evenly laid exactly along the height of the partitions.
The next step will require a drying oven. In it, the product is dried at a temperature of 60 ° C until the water completely evaporates from the enamel mixture. At the end of this process, a plate on a stand made of heat-resistant steel is placed in a muffle furnace and fired. If it is possible to regulate the temperature in the furnace, then it is advisable to bring it to 850 ° C; if not, then heating should be continued until the surface of the product becomes glossy.
The final stage of work
After making sure that the firing is completed, the plate is taken out of the oven using long tongs and, laying on a metal surface, pressed from above with a flat and even weight, the weight of which should be at least ten kilograms. In this form, the product cools down. Then the load is removed and the file is made to clean up irregularities and remove scale.
Cloisonne enamel is a complicated technique, and the artistic qualities of a product may turn out to be unsatisfactory the first time. In this case, you can add the required amount of enamel to the cells and repeat the firing, but you can do this no more than four times, since with a larger amount this type of enamel is discolored.