In this digital vitreous enamel course, suitable for complete beginners, I show you how to complete 8 exercises that will bring your wet-packing and gradation abilities to the next level.
Mer you are a great instructor and talented enamelist. After enameling for 30 years you have taught me new techniques in this beautiful art form. The class on wet packing and gradations is excellent. Thank you for sharing!
In this class Mer explains in a very detailed and clear way how to wash the enamels, how to apply them with the use of the brush and the spatula with 8 different exercises. You will learn how to fire the pieces in the proper way and how to fix mistakes!
The part we found most interesting is where she shows you how to create gradual shades and get perfect transparency, to say the least incredible, on copper!
I especially appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge. Your videos have been tremendously helpful in my quest to understand how this works 🙏
I found your video on shading and gradients to be incredibly helpful. Your painstaking care in presenting the process from beginning to end has really helped me to understand what to look for when I work in layers. Thank you so much for taking the time to produce it, and for all the work that went into it. Although I have been enameling for a couple of years, I learned a great deal, especially about how important the wetness of your enamel is, and how it can be used to your advantage.
Hi Mer, I just purchased my first class — wet packing. OMG, you are an amazing enamelist and a terrific teacher. I am so glad I bought it so I can watch over and over — so much to learn from you.
Mer Almagro offers wonderful tools and supplies to aid you in your enameling endeavors, something that was so needed in Europe!. Her educational contribution to the enameling community is so valuable to all of us. She researches her material and has a great understanding of the technical difficulties facing enamelists. Thanks to her, we now have an English translation of the wonderful Andreu Vilasís book. Go to her classes on Patreon!
Just watched part 1 of the shading video. Thank you so much for taking the time to produce it, and for all the work that went into it. Although I have been enamelling for a couple of years on a very part time basis, I learned a great deal, especially about how important the wetness of your enamel is, and how it can be used to your advantage. I’m looking forward to watching part 2. It’s always been valuable watching how others work, to pick up little bits that you might otherwise miss.
Mer, thank you again for another wonderful class. I learned so much just by watching and all the amazing information you have provided 🙏
This video class includes two downloadable 2 hour HD video classes (5 GB each) which cover the following:
- Washing enamel
- Enameling desk set-up
- Wet-packing with one opaque colour
- Firing opaque enamel on copper
- Wet-packing with two opaque colours creating a straight line
- Wet-packing with opaque and transparent colour creating a curved line, on a high dome
- Gradation tone on tone, transparent
- Gradation with opaque enamel
- Gradation with contrasting colours, transparent
- Gradation, working with two colours at the same time
- Fluxing a medium sized enamel panel
- Firing copper flux enamel
- Preparing a ceramic fibre support for firing
- And troubleshooting several problems that might arise
SCROLL TO THE END OF THIS PAGE FOR A COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS AND RUNNING TIME
All exercises are created on domed copper bases. You can also work on flat bases. The dimensions are:
- x2 5x5 cm squares (2" approx.) 0.5 mm (24 gauge) thick
- x3 3x8 cm rectangles (1x3" approx.) 0.5 mm (24 gauge) thick
- 4 cm diameter circle (1.5" approx.) 0.5 mm (24 gauge) thick (domed from a 4.5 cm diameter blank - 1.7" approx.)
- 3x6 cm shield (1x2" approx.) 0.5 mm (24 gauge) thick
- 8x13 cm (3x5" approx.) rectangular panel 0.7 mm (27 gauge) thick
The preparation of the bases is not touched upon, as it was covered in the previous class.
I use leaded enamels in this workshop, but you can use unleaded too. You need access to an enamelling kiln. If you want to participate in the private Facebook classroom, please send me an email to enamelworkshop@gmail.com, from the address you purchased your copy and I will send you an invite. You need to have an active Facebook profile to be able to join.
You can buy my classes with a 20% discount if you join the Intermediate or Producer tier in my Patreon. This is a good deal, you get to view all of my Patreon content and get the class for less. Once you're logged in to Patreon, visit this page to purchase.
| timestamp | ||
|---|---|---|
| PART 1 | ||
| 00:00:00 |  | Intro |
| 00:01:22 |  | Washing enamel |
| 00:09:25 |  | Enameling desk set-up |
| 00:13:42 |  | Base intro |
| 00:17:36 |  | Wet-packing with one opaque colour |
| 00:36:57 |  | Firing opaque enamel on copper |
| 00:42:59 |  | Cleaning edges and fixing blemishes |
| 00:54:15 |  | Wet-packing with two opaque colours creating a straight line |
| 01:22:09 |  | Wet-packing with opaque and transparent colour creating a curved line, on a high dome |
| 01:48:01 |  | Firing with flux |
| PART 2 | ||
| 00:00:09 |  | Gradation tone on tone, transparent |
| 00:10:38 |  | Gradation with opaque enamel |
| 00:19:14 |  | Gradation with contrasting colours, transparent |
| 00:41:44 |  | Gradation, working with two colours at the same time |
| 00:54:01 |  | Fluxing a medium sized enamel panel |
| 01:24:28 |  | Firing copper flux enamel |
| 01:30:12 |  | Fixing surface blemishes |
| 01:41:04 |  | Extras on exercise 5 |
| 01:47:02 |  | Extras on exercise 3 |
| 01:52:16 |  | Preparing a ceramic fibre support for firing |
| 01:55:56 | End credits |
Testimonials & REVIEWS
Review by @soenamelicious
Studying enamel art is difficult, having good basics is the secret to starting this path in the best way. Being able to rewatch the same passage over and over again gives you the opportunity to learn how to master the technique!
Video lessons have this great advantage.
Mer Almagro in this class explains in a very detailed and clear way how to wash the enamels, how to apply them with the use of the brush and the spatula with 8 different exercises. You will learn how to fire the pieces in the proper way and how to fix mistakes!
The part we found most interesting is where she shows you how to create gradual shades and get perfect transparency, to say the least incredible, on copper!
Come on, look at these colors! We know you want to learn how to do works like these. This tutorial gives you the opportunity to start from the basics if you are a beginner and, if you already know how to enamel, to learn the tricks of the trade that will take your work to the next level!You will also learn how to prepare ceramic fibre support for you kiln. The support that will change your way of work!
The video class by @enamel_workshop is four hours long.
Exact running time: Part 1 01:51:17 - Part 2 01:56:17