![[g6ygkrfb.bmp]] In early 2022, my good friend Galfrid asked me if I would be willing to assist with making some County Coronets that he was commissioned for. He wanted to add a pop of color to the coronets, and enamel was a wonderful way to do that. After discussing the requirements with him, I decided that going with Cloisonne would be the best way to make something that looked nice, since the enamel would sit off the metal and allow them to be set into coronet from behind. Champleve is a reductive sort of process which I think would have worked well if these would have been bezel set onto the main coronet body. [Baroness Sinn Larensdotter](https://www.op.atlantia.sca.org/op_ind.php?atlantian_id=7286) provided a ton of assistance for this project as well. Both she and Galfrid were there learning with me, bending wires, applying enamel, and polishing throughout the entire process. This was my first project doing cloisonne, and it was quite the learning experience. We experienced a lot of failures from the interaction of silver and copper in the kiln. There were also a lot of failures caused by us using the incorrect base coat for the wires to attach to. It caused the white to bubble up into the main color and ruin the design. The last major failure we experienced was that our initial enamel work cracked pretty horribly. We neglected to use counter enamel because we didn't think that the size would cause the glass to be destroyed on the front. We were wrong. Lastly, they were *small*. Ultimately, we prevailed, and the coronets look amazing thanks for Galfrid's excellent metal working ability. ## Design As seen in the image above, these enamels are small plaques that are riveted into the main body of the coronet from behind. This caused us to have to deviate from our normal enameling workflow because of the previously mentioned reasons. Enamels used (from Thompson Enamel): - 1020 Titanium White - 1240 Pine Yellow - 1360 Jungle Green - 1660 Ultramarine Blue - 1880 Flame Red ![[oca479lb.bmp]] The basic design required us to enamel stylized versions of the recipient's heraldry onto a small copper plaque with rivet tabs. In order to make consistent chevrons, Galfrid created a jig for us to bend our wires upon ![[a4l4qhag.bmp]] This allowed us to make the plaques much faster and in a consistent manner. ![[438xlwh6.bmp]] ## Construction The process was pretty straightforward: 1. Cut metal plaques to the correct shape 2. Counter enamel the back, leaving the rivet tabs empty. Put through kiln. - Otherwise the glass would crack when the rivet is hammered 3. Sift an enamel base layer on the front side for the wires to rest upon. Put through kiln. - We used Titanium White (1020) which isn't the appropriate enamel for this application. Ideally Undercoat White (1010) should be used. 4. Bend wires into shape and temporary stick to the metal. Put through kiln to set wires. 5. Wet inlay enamel colors and put through kiln until satisfied. 6. Grind and polish. 7. Deliver to friends <3 ![[caiahql1.bmp]] Test Riveting: ![[z9ucvupo.bmp]] > [!Important] Risks of Silver and Copper > Silver and copper sometimes react very interestingly together in the kiln. There's substantial risk that if the metals touch, the silver will melt into the copper and ruin the piece as seen here. It's very important to either have a thick base layer, or simply use copper wire on copper metal. Fortunately, this did not occur on the [[Cloisonne Oak Leaf]] project. > ![[i6jul5vy.bmp]] ^ffec0b ## Finished Product ![[t715b2lm.bmp]] ![[w0fzowh9.bmp]]