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 |
"No Rules Enameling"
l use a simple and down to earth style of teaching.
We pay attention to the Principles (Science)
We Break the Rules.
Principles are the foundation for everything you will want to do with enamel.
It is the science behind the changes. Materials have physical properties or characteristics. When I do something which creates a change, these properties effect the changes, whether I like it or not. It is what it is.
I will get a result no matter what I do.
And I will either like the result or I won't.
If I like it I do more of it.
If I don't like it I do something else.
It's knowing that when I do "X", the result will be "Y".
You learn this through understanding and experiencing the principles for yourself. It's like riding a bike. I know (through experience, not a Youtube video)
that if I lean to far to one side I will probably fall over. This would be a combination of the principles of balance and gravity.
I learn through experience not to lean over to far unless I want to fall off the bike.
Learning to enamel is similar. Figure out what works and do it.
Do what gives you the results which you like.
Don't do what gives you results which you don't like.
Learn the principles, practice the principles, and apply the principles,
We will explore the 3 most important parts of enameling.
We learn about the relationships.
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. |
Experiences, not Projects
I will be teaching you skills and techniques but not by using teacher-directed projects. I've found that teaching students to make specific project encourages students to think more about the result than the process. "Am I doing it right?" becomes more important than "What is happening and what is possible?".
I want you to think, observe, ask questions, and play or experiment without fear,
not worry about whether you are "good" or doing it the "right way".
Learning to "create your own project" is a skill I want you to develop.
When we were young we learned by trying until we got it. We learned how to walk, ride a bike, ice skate, or speak in complete sentences without video tutorials. We tried and tried until we got the basics. And then we played and experimented and made adjustments to do it until we could do it "good enough" for what we wanted and in our own way.
I don't believe there is a "right way". There are different ways which give me different types of results. Whenever I get stuck, it's almost always because I am trying to do it "right", find the "right answer", or not "make a mistake".
My fears keep my from learning new ways or finding creative solutions.
There are lots of "right ways". It just depends what result you want. And if you don't know what results are possible, how can you know what you want? I want YOU to explore what is possible so that you discover what you like and then develop the control necessary to make it "good enough" for you.
I want you to think, observe, ask questions, and play or experiment without fear,
not worry about whether you are "good" or doing it the "right way".
Learning to "create your own project" is a skill I want you to develop.
When we were young we learned by trying until we got it. We learned how to walk, ride a bike, ice skate, or speak in complete sentences without video tutorials. We tried and tried until we got the basics. And then we played and experimented and made adjustments to do it until we could do it "good enough" for what we wanted and in our own way.
I don't believe there is a "right way". There are different ways which give me different types of results. Whenever I get stuck, it's almost always because I am trying to do it "right", find the "right answer", or not "make a mistake".
My fears keep my from learning new ways or finding creative solutions.
There are lots of "right ways". It just depends what result you want. And if you don't know what results are possible, how can you know what you want? I want YOU to explore what is possible so that you discover what you like and then develop the control necessary to make it "good enough" for you.
When you Learn to Enamel you begin to change how you think. Part of the process of learning to enamel is learning to ask new questions.
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Many students tell me how much they love that they are learning to "ask questions" in new and more helpful ways. They especially like that this is a skill which can be applied to all aspects of their lives.
The biggest challenge is to understand how all of the things we are thinking about are related to one another. We learn this by learning to answer the question: "What does it depend on?". When you are able to do this for yourself, you are well on your way to being able to ask and answer any question about enamel you might have. |
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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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