Sarah Miller

“Strange Creature”

I wasn't sure at first what to do with "strange creature". I happened to be visiting the Friendship Garden at Balboa Park recently and it was close to cherry blossom time. I have always loved cherry blossoms and wanted to explore that with a larger enamel project, a 4 in by 4 in square wall hanging. I also noticed a bunch of bees buzzing around the cherry blossoms and then had the idea that a little bee could be my strange creature.

My first misstep was that I forgot to perforate the foil. I used a large sheet of Ginbari foil and crumpled it up, then laid it back out. Later, I got a few pops in my foil because I forgot to poke it. Grrrr. However, nothing really awful happened so I kept going. Setting my wire went off without too much incident. I used some Japanese leaded enamels that my friend gave me and was happy the the pinks. My biggest challenge with this piece was trying to keep the 4 by 4 copper piece flat after so many firings. I used a heavy metal weight to flatten it. It worked ok but I ended up with some warping in the center, which later caused some cracks in the enamel on the front. I cut some silver foil leaf shapes to cover them up (obvious???) but it was actually kind of a cool addition I thought. At the very end, after grinding, I started getting some massive cracks and almost lost my mind. My enameling buddy Jeanne (also part of this group) suggested that I NOT weight my copper in the final firings and let it cool very slowly. I followed her advise and it helped a lot. I entered this piece into a monthly show at a local gallery and got first place in my category. Woo hoo. (They are not enamel experts!!) Thanks so much for the inspiration and continued learning opportunities.

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