New Enamel Testing and New Pieces
When I began enamelling, I made the decision to work exclusively with lead-free glass. I have been tempted by the larger colour palette available in lead-bearing varieties (especially the lovely Japanese Ninomiya transparents), but I was loathe to adopt a material that was more toxic.
The other day, I discovered that Milton Bridge produces a lead-free enamel line for use on copper, silver and gold. After looking at some online colour samples, I decided to purchase a number of colours to test with my current lead-free Thompson colour palette.
While I love the enamel colours that Thompson produces, I have not been happy with their transparent reds. The pinks they produce are wonderful, however I felt that I was missing a true, warm red. The pinks and oranges perform well, however they are very temperature sensitive, and react poorly when applied directly over silver.
I ordered Milton Bridge 103 Light Rose, 104 Ruby, 134 Paprika and 113 Elf Green.
From Left to Right: Milton Bridge Lead-free 103 Light Rose, 104 Ruby, 134 Paprika, and 113 Elf Green. Applied over Thompson 2020 Flux for Silver, and directly over fine silver foil at the bottom.
To my surprise, the 134 Paprika is a higher temperature enamel, similar in behavior to Thompson’s 2190 Chestnut, or even 1020 Titanium White. I took my colour sample up to 1520°F to achieve an orange peel texture, whereas I usually fire the Thompson enamel reds and pinks to around 1490-1500°F for a full fuse. 134 Paprika looks traffic-cone orange in its powdered form, but it melts to a lovely, true dark-red. I found that 134 Paprika only shows a mild reaction when it is applied directly to silver, even with multiple high temperature firings!
Colour test and Cloisonné test
104 Ruby is softer than 134 Paprika, and had a fusing temperature more in line with what I was expecting (around 1500°F). 104 Ruby is a nice blood-red colour, and has only a little reaction when applied directly over silver. The sample rose cloisonné was done mostly with 104 Ruby, showing that the colour darkens considerably when it is applied in multiple layers. I had done some shading of the rose petals using 134 Paprika, but the additional layers of 104 Ruby seem to have swallowed this. For your reference, the background teal colour of the cloisonné rose was done using Thompson 2420 Sea Green.
Cloisonné test using Thomspon 2020 Flux for silver, 2420 Sea Green, Milton Bridge 134 Paprika, and 104 Ruby
103 Light Rose behaves similar to 104 Ruby, and fuses nicely at around 1500°F. 103 Light Rose was the most reactive of the Milton Bridge reds and pinks I tested, but it was a beautiful bright bubble-gum pink when applied over Thompson 2020 Flux. Light Rose seemed to be the only one of the reds that had a noticeable discolouration associated with temperature, and it seemed to yellow slightly when applied directly to silver.
113 Elf Green is a wonderfully bright, light green that strongly reminds me of the old lead-free Thompson Peppermint. I think this green will soon become a favourite of mine. Once more, 113 Elf Green fuses nicely at around 1500°F, and shows no discolouration associated with direct application to silver.
In addition to my enamel colour testing experiments, I finished a new pair of Peridot half-moon earrings in the ‘Blooming’ series, and a granulated pendant with a 4mm rose-cut Chrysoprase accent.
Blooming Peridot Half-moon Earrings
Granulation Pendant with 4mm rose-cut Chrysoprase
