Christine Woollacott
Christine Woollacott of Turritella Designs produces jewellery in her small studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Multiples of the designs are created using handmade molds, and many of the cloisonné pieces are one-of-a-kind. Christine works mainly with fine silver and Thompson unleaded glass enamel. Transparent coloured glass enamel powder is fused to the metal at temperatures of over 1500 ⁰ Fahrenheit, to make colourful, luminous jewellery.
I’ve mentioned a few times now that I sift my enamel into 325 mesh grains (used for wet-packing) and extra fine powder (used for painting). Yesterday, I finished a massive colour tester that showed my entire painting colour palette. The colours are shown over a 1030 Foundation White base, and are labelled using graphite. All the colours are Thompson enamel transparents unless labelled MB, in which case they are unleaded Milton Bridge enamel.
Enamel Colour Test
I’ve been experimenting with a few enamelling techniques in my studio lately. Today I finished a cute, simple charm using graphite and painting techniques with extra fine transparent colour. I really like the simplicity of drawing directly on the glass!
Simple Graphite on enamel charm.