Each week, “Verlocal Diaries” records the Verlocal team’s adventures to various classes conducted by our hosts. From the narration of our hosts’ stories to the thoughts of our fellow participants, we piece together everything we have experienced to create a long lasting memory in the form of a diary entry — that is both personal and shareable.
Do you think jewellery crafting is expensive and “atas”? That’s exactly what I thought too! However, after today’s class with Shan at Artisan8, I found out that it is in fact quite affordable and easy to create your own trinkets. Artisan8 specialises in enameling, silver-smithing and glass fusing. For those who are just as clueless as me, enameling is basically the fusing of glass onto a metal surface. Look at the speckled pattern on the pedant above, that’s what enameling does!
When we first arrived, we were warmly welcomed into Shan’s homely studio — peppered with many trinkets on display. Shan started us off by talking about the different metals used, and how they had to be heated in order to soften the metal so that letters can be stamped. We then embarked on our first task of stamping letters on metal!
Metal Stamping
Being totally new to metal stamping, we were given time and materials to practice before moving on to the real thing! I felt that drawing rulers and grids help a lot for alignment and spacing — which are so important when you cannot undo what you have imprinted on the pendant. It was reassuring to know that all the markings will be totally cleaned off in the later stage too.
Here’s what Jonas had to say about the stamping experience:
Stamping onto the copper pendant was challenging for me. Because of the irreversible nature of metal stamping — many things had to be consistent each and every time. This includes the position of the stencil, the strength used, and the number of times you hammer the stencil. All this made the process pretty stressful.
Luckily, Shan was constantly there to guide me through the process, informing me about which stencils were harder to use, and how exactly I should modify my process depending on what I was using.
Enamelling of glass powder
Next up, we had to sand and clean the opposite face to prepare it for glass fusing. Shan explained to us that a rougher surface is needed for the glass to fuse with the metal. After all this prep work, I was excited to move on to the glass fusing stage!
Look at all the choices available to for us to mix and match! I struggled to find a perfect combination for myself.
Zhi Ning also faced the same dilemma:
When it comes to choosing the colour, it was a challenge for me because I wanted this piece to be special to me, hence determined to have a colour combination that is a good representation of myself. For someone who doesn’t have a favourite colour, this is rather hard. Shan gave us some sample pieces that helped me to visualise a colour combination that I like!
The process of applying the glass powder was a slow and meticulous one, we had to be careful not to topple the pendant or get powder on the other side. For some reason, all of us settled on blending different shades of blue! After we sprinkled and layered our pendants with glass powder, we were all ready to get torching🔥
The torching experiencing was the defining moment of the workshop as I got to see the multi-coloured speckles of glass powder blend and “melt”onto the surface. After all, this was the main feature of the pendant!
Look at how the blue glass powder has fused on the pendant — capped off with some white and speckled with pink!
What Zhi Ning felt about her pendant above:
I learnt that despite my effort to perfect the piece, I couldn’t control the way the glass pieces fuse together and that’s okay! This lil’ imperfection took me by surprise, but makes the piece closer to heart and much more personal! I realised that if I wanted a perfect piece, I could buy it off the store. What makes this piece special is its perfect imperfections.
Polishing and Final Touches
With the bulk of the work done, I moved on to sanding the charred face of the pendant, a result of the firing just now. It did look a bit daunting at first, but I managed to polish it with some grit and perseverance. In the end, it was heartening to see my pendant all shiny and gleaming ✨
Jonas too, had a positive experience:
The difficulty level of perfecting the end product was extremely high. Any mistake would cause permanent blemishes or imperfections to surface in the end. As a result, creating something that was challenging to make really brought a huge sense of achievement. Also, the level of personalisation on such a small object was extremely extensive, which gave the end product a really personal and bespoke feel.
With the pendant completed, we could choose whether to set it as a necklace or key-chain. I went with the clam shell necklace because I felt that it was a better fit for my pendant!
Viola! Here are the fruits of our labour. If you take a closer look, you can see how the sanding has created an interesting brushed metal effect.
Final Thoughts
I got to say that I really enjoyed this class! Shan was detailed in explaining the technical aspects of enameling and stamping, giving us a fundamental understanding of what we were doing. I think it was great to have a educational aspect to this workshop that shines light on the process, rather than just focusing on creating the final product.
Personally, at the start I was worried about making mistakes in stamping or applying the glass powder. Guess what, I did make mistakes! However, this taught me to appreciate the permanence of this craft and makes the entire experience a lot more meaningful and authentic. Working with metal and glass was a truly unique experience for us all.
Interested in what we just did? Want to make a personalised pendant for your special someone? Your journey starts here 💎
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