Smiley face enamels

[afmetalsmith]

Here are pictures of the current state of the pieces I am working on for the Smiley Face show.

Cloisonne smiley The finished cloisonne smiley face, not in setting.

Plique Smiley: process My Plique-a-jour smiley face, during the enameling process.

Comments

Some questions

[fub.livejournal.com]

How large is the plique-a-jour smiley? How thick?
Suppose you were to have a light behind it -- how much added thickness would be acceptable?

(Yes, I didn't forget about our initial discussions! It's still in my mind.)

Re: Some questions

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

The plique one is about 1.25 inches across, so that's about 31-32mm. The thickness of the metal is 1.3mm, and it's domed a wee bit- I could definitely dome more, though, if I needed the space! For this one I did it as low a dome as I could manage, since I just wanted it for stability and appearance. The whole thing, domed, is probably about 6mm back to front in the middle.

I think for a light behind it, anything up to about 12mm on the edges and mmybe 18 in the middle would not be a problem at all. More would be possible, probably, but the design would be trickier to give the thickness without it looking awkward. This basic diameter is a pretty good one for plique, but it could go somewhat bigger or smaller; also, the plique part could be set into a larger box if needed.

This one isn't going to be set- all the metal that's going to be there already is. The next steps are to finish the enameling, polish, and set the 2 stones. Good thing, too, since it has to be done in a week and a half or so!