Laura Bracken is a metalsmith and enamel jewelry artist and instructor currently working out of Penryn, California. Purposefully transforming metal and glass into story telling through hammer and flame is what she calls her “essence of jewelry” and it’s that essence that helps distinguish handmade jewelry from machine made. Her techniques include forging, forming, texturing, soldering, cold-connections, enameling, saw piercing, and etching. She works mainly with ethically-sourced repurposed pure and sterling silver and occasionally 14k gold-fill and/or copper. All metal fabrication is done by her.
In 2020, Laura started learning the ancient technique of cloisonné, a technique of applying glass to metal. Each piece can take several days to make, starting with the design and ending with the high polish. Here Laura describes the process.
To create a piece, I generally start with sheets of pure silver (0.999) that I cut into the shape I need, often fusing one piece to another using a torch. Several layers of enamel (colored, powdered glass) are then fused to the metal using a 1450 degree kiln.
Next I create the cloison wires by running pure silver wire through a rolling mill until it is the size and shape I desire for the project. The wire is cut and bent into the shapes of my design and fused into the base coat of enamel by firing in the kiln.
After that, thin layers of enamel are added, with the cloison wires acting as separators. Each thin layer is fired in the kiln and then a subsequent layer is added, and so on.
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Most pieces require 15-20 layers of fired enamel before the design is complete. After that, I use a series of diamond sanding sticks to “stone down” the surface and make it even. The piece is then washed meticulously, refired, and polished to a high gloss. Sometimes it’s ready to go in its fine silver setting, and other times I fabricated a setting out of sterling silver.
Enamel can be cleaned easily with a polishing cloth or other soft cloth and soapy water. Just remember enamel is glass so take care not to drop it.