Day 6: The Make Works Christmas Countdown

For the Make Works Christmas Countdown this year, we will be telling you a bit about different materials each day, with suggestions about where you can work with it in Scotland.

Day 6: Vitreous enamel 

Vitreous enamel is a type of glass which can be applied to metal, glass and ceramics for protective and decorative uses. 

Starting as a fine glass powder called frit, enamel is fused to the hard surface, either by being fired in a kiln or using a blow torch. During this process the enamel melts and hardens to a smooth, durable surface. Colours are created by adding other minerals to the frit, such as cobalt, iron or neodymium.

Industrially, enamel tends to be used with steel, creating objects such as advertising signage, cooking pots, lampshades, tiles or in cast iron bathtubs. The frit can be mixed with water, which makes it usable for other application processes such as spray painting and screen printing. You can see a slideshow of how the London Underground signs are made using enamel here.

This is why large scale architectural enamelling is used by both surface designers and some printmakers to create large scale public artworks. In architecture, enamelling tends to be done to make building cladding more durable and resistant to temperatures, abrasion or chemicals. 

Today there are also a multitude of designers and brands using enamel pins in their work. Whilst some of these use glass-based enamels, the modern, lower-cost techniques for many hard and soft enamel pins use paints instead. 

In Scotland you can take a class in jewellery enamelling at Vanilla Ink.  

I’ve been looking for a Scottish architectural enamelled for about 6 years (with no luck) -  but there are a few in England: AJ Wells on the Isle of Wight and Trico in the West Midlands. You can also look at the British Society of Enamellers.

For enamel pins try Made by Cooper.