In The Studio: Engraving Copper Plates

Above: Gravers, India Stone (for sharpening gravers). Photo & gravers by Emily Wiser

I recently took an engraving class, where we learned to engrave copper plates by hand. It's great practice for my engraved book and for learning to hand-engrave jewelry. You can also set stones with gravers. We had to make our own gravers. Here's some photos of my engraving tools. my copper plate, and the print I made from it.

Above: Engraved Copper Plates. I engraved them by hand with the gravers shown above. Photo & plates by Emily Wiser.

Above: A block print from the engraved copper plate. I inked it by hand, wet paper, and pressed it down on the engraved plate.
Photo & print by Emily Wiser.

In The Studio: Adventures in Enameling

Turquoise enameled copper scrap on tripod. Photo and enameling by Emily Wiser

I'm trying enameling for the first time. No teachers. No guidance. I'm learning on my own. But, I did find a great article at ganoskin.com. Here's a picture of my first enameling attempt. (Well, it's not really my first, but it's my first successful one, LOL.)

This is a piece of copper sitting on a steel screen. The screen is set on a tripod. I applied the turquoise opaque enamel 4 times, fixing it with Pantene hairspray. I heated it each time with a propane torch from underneath. I got the really deep color by adding a 5th layer of translucent turquoise enamel.

I'm going to make some cute enamel disc earrings and enameled flowers. Pictures soon!