Guest Post - Julie Holmes
I Color Inside the Lines
I was a good kid who became a good adult. I studied hard, earned a degree and stepped into a career that demanded precision, sought perfection, was fraught with pressure and where white was the only desirable color. If you ask how long I've worked with enamel, I'd say since 1984 when I became a dentist. If you ask how long I've been passionate, excited and challenged by enamel, I'd say since 1998 when I read an article about cloisonné enameling in Lapidary Journal. You can read the article here:
http://www.jewelryartistmagazine.com/feature/enamel-jewelry-artists.cfm I was captivated, awe-struck and inspired by the work of Merry-Lee Rae and humbled by the precision and perfection of all three artists. Here was the color I craved, the self expression that I needed and the challenge to learn a new skill.
I learned how to enamel from the internet. More specifically, from Merry-Lee Rae's website. Merry-Lee generously shares her process and technique online. Many others do too, but it was Merry-Lee I learned from. If she had said to enamel on a moving target under water while looking in a mirror, I would have done it...even though I'd already been there done that. I followed her technique as closely as I could and over time I've developed my own process which varies very little from what I learned in the beginning...because it works.
I think it's important to share where I started. Here's my first ever attempt at cloisonné.
It's unleaded enamel on copper. It's a woman starting out on a journey. I thought it was awful and I put away my enameling supplies and didn't try again for two years.
But, like gold calls to a pirate, cloisonné called to me. I had started the journey and the next time I tried to enamel, it stuck. I wanted to enamel like Merry-Lee and Alexa Smarsh, Ricky Frank and Falcher Fusager. The harder I tried to enamel like them the more frustrated I became. Their work is stunning. Their work I recognize. Their work was theirs.
It's been a learning process, and I think the most important thing I've learned is that you can make even your most passionate pursuits about precision, perfection and pressure if you are too attached to the outcome. However, they're more fulfilling if you make them about joy, creativity and self expression.
Nowadays, I hardly ever work from a design. I like to sit down, take out the wire and the tools and just start bending and see what shows up. How do I know where to place the bends? I trust the wire to bend exactly where it should to make the cloisonné my own.
