This whole post is about an improvement in already-made enamel earrings. In this post, I have explained about the process of making these kite earrings. I have made these kite earrings during evening when it was dark and did not notice that faint yellowing around silver wires. Actually, I was very happy that this pink did not react with silver!
Reacting warm colours with silver is a constant challenge in the enameling world. I am always testing my transparent enamels of warm colours against silver. Because I usually use them in cloisonné that they touch fine silver cloisonné wires. You can always fire a base coat enamel on silver to have a shield between silver and reds, pinks, yellows and oranges. But when it comes to silver wires, there is a more difficult job to inhibit the reaction. However, I did not test my opaque enamels against silver, because I usually use them on copper and do not use them in cloisonné. In this particular design, I needed to have spine and spar for my kites, so I could not avoid having silver wires.
I have tried copper wires in the past as well. Using copper wire in this kind of designs has its own issues and the biggest of them is that copper is oxidized after firing. On the other hand, I prefer how silver wire looks in this particular design. So, being cautious about these facts, I enameled all my other kites- including two other kites that I did not include them in this collection-using cold colours. In this particular one, lapis blue and this particular pink are matching very well together. Result could be good if I did not see that faint yellowing the next day’s morning! So, an improvement in these enamel earrings seemed necessary!
Solutions
So, I thought about the solutions to fix this issue! I thought about grinding a layer of pink and replacing it with a blue or blue green. I had to cut through enamel using diamond bits and remove a layer of pink. It was messy and I needed to fire it more than once as it should be grinded again.
Then I thought that I can use a thin layer of 325 mesh enamel and do not grind. But the best-case scenario was to apply a layer of 325 mesh enamel and sgraffito through that to draw some pink nice hearts. I was happy with the idea! Hence, I tried this blue that is a little greenish and drew those lovely hearts and fired the kites for the last time. No more firing! And I have been happy with the result! Who doesn’t like these sweet little pink hearts?! 😀