Summer Courses in the USA - Enamelist Society

Add some color to your life - and work - this summer!
Enamelist Society workshops available! this August!!!! ...

If you've ever admired pictures of René Lalique's masterpiece "Dragonfly Woman" ornament, with glowing transparent wings of blue, you've seen plique à jour and it's unique power to add color and luster to jewelry design. This summer, Diane Almeyda, the premier American plique-à-jourenamelist, offers two workshops in plique à jour as part of the the Enamelist Society Biennial Conference, "Fusion," being held in Columbus Ohio August 24-26, 2007. Starting with a frame of pierced silver or a filigree skeleton ofsoldered silver wires; enamel is suspended and fired to fill the openings. With no metal backing, the enamels transmit light and resemble miniature stained glass. The result is a visual and technical "tour-de-force. "Almeyda's pre-conference workshop, August 22-24, will cover the pierced technique, while her post-conference workshop, August 27-29,will concentrate on constructing a filigreed piece. Almeyda learned filigree plique-à-jour from Valeri Timofeev, the great Russian masterof the technique.
Both workshops will take place at the Woodrow Carpenter Foundation in Covington Kentucky which is affiliated with Thompson Enamel. Thompson is the sole remaining American manufacturer of vitreous enamel, and a promoter of the art form for many years.

Other Enamelist Society workshops still available at this site are Harold B. Helwig, "Wet out and Underglaze," a unique exploration of enamel drawing techniqueswith one of the medium's greatest experimenters and teachers, and Jeanette Landenwitch, "Exploring Precious Metal Clay for Enamelists. "Landenwitch is director of the PMC guild and teaches PMC workshops throughout the U. S.
Interested in working BIGGER? Two workshops at Kent State'slarge-scale enameling facility also still have room for students. Katy Bergman Cassell will present "Industrial Materials, Artistic Expression" pre-conference, while Cathy Kay Taylor's post-conference workshop, "Color, Color, Color: Enamels and Color on a Large Scale"will work with liquid and dry enamels to explore the color possibilities of enamel on steel.

Registration for the conference and workshops can be done by mail oronline - but hurry! A $40 late fee will be charged after July 30th.

For more information, go to http://www.enamelistsociety.org/