Welcome to "Learn to Enamel"
with Ricky Frank
with Ricky Frank
Enameling is basically layers of glass melted onto metal. The type of glass used is called "enamel" and the metals most commonly used are copper, silver, and gold. Depending on how you prepare your metal and enamel, how you apply your enamel to the metal, and how you fire it will determine what your enamel piece looks like.
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I love the magical quality of light passing through colored glass. When I enamel, I can use my metal backgrounds to create reflected light which is transmitted through the different layers of the colored enamel.
The technique of Cloisonne´ (using wire ribbons to create walls within the enamel layers) allows me to build up many layers of the enamel colors. I've been enameling for more than 42 years, making, selling, and teaching the art of cloisonne´enamel. I'm mostly self-taught and I had ZERO art experience when I first started this incredible journey into "Color, Layers, and Light". |
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Beyond Technique:
Learn to "think and speak" in enamel
My approach to "learning how to enamel" is unique.
Many classes focus on teaching you the techniques which the instructor uses in their artwork. You learn their methods, tools, tricks, and tips.
These are important. It will help you "do"things like the artists you admire and want to model. My classes are filled with technique, tips, and tricks.
But I believe that there is much more to learn if I want to "learn to enamel".
There is the "inner game" of enameling.
It's what is happening inside of me.
It's the relationship I am having with the tools, materials, and techniques.
It's discovering my artistic vision and critical eye.
It's learning how to create, express, and design with enamel.
It's learning to observe the world, ask questions, and act to give yourself results.
It's dealing with the fears which get in the way of you doing all of this.
It's how you use your skills which will give you the satisfaction you desire.
After all, why do you want to learn the skills.
Many classes focus on teaching you the techniques which the instructor uses in their artwork. You learn their methods, tools, tricks, and tips.
These are important. It will help you "do"things like the artists you admire and want to model. My classes are filled with technique, tips, and tricks.
But I believe that there is much more to learn if I want to "learn to enamel".
There is the "inner game" of enameling.
It's what is happening inside of me.
It's the relationship I am having with the tools, materials, and techniques.
It's discovering my artistic vision and critical eye.
It's learning how to create, express, and design with enamel.
It's learning to observe the world, ask questions, and act to give yourself results.
It's dealing with the fears which get in the way of you doing all of this.
It's how you use your skills which will give you the satisfaction you desire.
After all, why do you want to learn the skills.
Enameling is learning how to
problem solve and make decisions
We learn by Doing it.
The direct Experience of asking ourselves questions, trying something, and then observing the results is how we learn.
In my classes, you will be required to Think.
You don't learn the "right way". You learn to think about and do the "many possible"
ways so that you can see for yourself (and therefore learn on a deeper level).
There is No Right Way to do anything.
There are just results. You either like the results or you don't like them.
If you like them you may choose to keep doing it.
If you don't, you do something else.
It's a pretty simple philosophy and a strategy which almost any successful person uses.
Find a workshop or class that's right for you.
Online Classes |
"Live" Workshops |
What is Cloisonne´ Enameling?
Cloisonne´ means that we are using wires to create divided cells within our enamel surface. The traditional approach uses thin ribbon-style wires, usually made of copper, silver, and gold. The wires create walls which can separate enamel colors.
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The enamel (it looks like colored sand)
is painted within the cells and heated until it melts. |
Enamel layers are built up and fired
until your vision is complete. |
What makes Ricky Frank unique as an enamel teacher?
"The emphasis on personal responsibility to make artistic decisions for the work done is so much more instructive than simply taking a 'project course' and working to take home one pretty item...His knowledge of the science of learning, and how one learns a skill is wonderfully refreshing to glimpse."
-TERRY BRAKE
"The emphasis on personal responsibility to make artistic decisions for the work done is so much more instructive than simply taking a 'project course' and working to take home one pretty item...His knowledge of the science of learning, and how one learns a skill is wonderfully refreshing to glimpse."
-TERRY BRAKE
Ricky Frank Cloisonne´ Jewelry
Here are some examples of my enamel jewelry. As you can see, you don't need dozens of intricate wires to create an interesting cloisonne´piece. It's not all about the technique, it's about how you use "what you know".
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Simple, abstract
wires |
One wire!
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Precise and figurative
wires |
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Ricky Frank
Marietta. GA 770-552-7890 email: rfenamels@aol.com |
HAVE A QUESTION? DROP ME A LINE
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