First picture of the Blacksmith Ring!

[afmetalsmith]

Here is is! This is just a quick snapshot J took while he was wearing it; we'll get some better shots of the whole thing soon.

Blacksmith Ring #1: Top, on finger Handmade hollow sterling ring, set with a cloisonne glass enamel featuring an anvil on a background of flame.

Comments

[medvssa.livejournal.com]

It looks pretty cool (oops, sorry, warm ;P) and the colors don't look pinky at all. Do you have a mortar? you could grind them more to avoid little dots, and even mix yellow and red if you go very fine.

[afmetalsmith.livejournal.com]

In the orange bit above the anvil, I did end up mixing red and yellow, and that looked so good that I overlaid lots of yellow on the rest of the pinky red. That helped, and what helped even more was overfiring it/firing it hot a couple of times. That seemed to blend the colors very nicely, even without grinding them fine. I'd be concerned about compromising the clarity if I went too fine, but then a bit of speckles in a fire theme seems OK if that's how it ends up.

One of the coolest effects i've bgtten was mixing a maroon with flux- I was after a less-intense red, but it ended up a marvelous tweed texture over copper, with all sorts of colors. Very cool!

I need to get an agate morar and pestle, though. I want to be able to grind colors really fine for painting/grissaille.

(and I apologize for the 2 comment notifications- I need to change the way I reply to stuff!)