Discovering the Holy Grail Part 2

April 22, 2009 - by sheilamorley

…Continued from my last post here, “Discovering the Holy Grail Part 1″ …

I can imagine numerous beads with people on them dancing around. And I am looking forward to making many more.  I just honestly feel that some “bead makers” could make some really cool beads with these images.

Each relief type figure that I sculpt can take 20 min. to an hour and a half.  And, I think it would become too much of a production service for me to enjoy. Many people have e-mailed suggestions of what I could do with the people I sculpt. It is exciting to imagine what people would do. I want to see what their muse does!

Somewhere around 2004 I learned that my ceramics professor  had developed a technically advanced enamel decal process. Fusing decal images to ceramic and glass.  I was fascinated with the process. I just couldn’t afford it at the time.  I held onto the ideas and saved numerous images; editing them in Photoshop, and saving them as high resolution, and manipulating some as well. This was a 4 year process.

I started the decal enamel tests in winter 2008. I have run a couple hundred tests, and I am really enjoying the results.  The images from all of my past “boogie down beads” are copied, and I can reproduce them in different colors.  I can now fuse my images to the surface of the glass.  I can use my art as a tool. It’s working for me! I am very inspired. This is an incredible technology.

For fun!!!!  I have made copies of some of the decals for other glass lampworkers to test.  I have written some instructions for them, and I can not wait to see what people come up with.

Why do I call this “the holy grail”? Well, for starters, it took me a long time to figure this out, and in every portrayal of the holy grail, I have seen or heard; it takes a long time to get to it. The grail is magic, and this seems like a magical discovery.

And! Just when I think this is New, and innovative to the lampworking community (which it is! In America). This has been done for many years, with furnace glass and fused glass.  The first to do it named the process; “the graal technique” ( from the story of “the holy grail” by, Froding, a Swedish writer)

The graal was kept secret for a long time.  Glass workers were able to create patterns that were one of a kind,  making their work like no other. For more, read this paper by Jonathan Baskett. (Jonathan has a Website with his glass decals in large Art pieces.)

It doesn’t start here!  Glass techniques are discovered, and kept secret, and lost (in war/death),  and re-discovered again, over and over again; all around the world, for hundreds of years. It is one of the most secretive mediums I have learned about. Fascinating.

I am excited to have gotten to this point in my art (life). Where I have the opportunity to contribute something new to an art community. I am not the only lampworker doing this. I know Kristen,  with  www.uniqueinalltheworld.com has been discovering Sepia colored enamel decals, and she makes some nice family beads.  Her and I have been sharing our discoveries. (I am hoping other Artist’s will chime in, and take us to some links to Flame worked enamel decals!)

These are some of the first images I borrowed from my boogie down beads series.  (That marble in the picture is borosilicate with fused enamel images within. YES! BORO!)    I have been editing pictures of the actual beads I made with these decals.  That will be part three of my story.; the test results! (You might notice a couple in my blog.)

If you want to take part in some enamel tests; you can visit my site.

Sheila Morley has a website, and blogs about art from her home office.

6 Comments »

1. New post at WMC « Art talk with Sheila Morley says:

   [...] discovering the grail!! HERE! [...]

   April 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm

2. Mallory says:

   Sheila, that is awesome! Congratulations!

   April 23rd, 2009 at 3:49 am

3. Jeri says:

   Very cool, is an “enamel” decal different than a decal? I know a button artist, http://www.marygaumond.com who uses decals, but I think she fuses them, then finishes them at the torch, not the same thing at all, but I wondered if “enamel” was the magic word in your quest? Nice adventure, Jeri

   April 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 am

4. Ruth Ann says:

   Your people remind me of ‘The Dancing Men’ bfrom Sherlock Holmes!

   April 23rd, 2009 at 6:49 am

5. sheilamorley says:

   Mallory, Thank you!

   Jeri, “Enamel” is amazing. We are talking about a mixture of oxides (metals, creating color) combined with a binding agent to become one with its substrate. Some decals will fuse to the surface at low temperatures; that is not the same thing. We use them because the colors do not burn out at low temperatures (not as easy as high temp.’s) It is not “permanent”. (Some crafts are not about being permanent) The decals I am using are designed to be permanently welded onto the surface. Surface and substrate become one. (I want to call it “melded”; with glass it melts…) This is an amazing process. When we paint enamel on glass it burns off pretty easy, when we introduce it to the flame. This makes multiple layers and firing required, or a heavy clear encasement. With these decals we have a much more consistent medium to start with. (And some secret ingredients that help out a lot!) I do have some issues with burn off of color, but I have been able to fix that with practice, and developing a technique that works.
   I hope that answers your question?

   Ruth, I’ll have to check that out. thanks!

   April 23rd, 2009 at 4:08 pm

6. sheilamorley says:

   Jeri, I think Mary (http://www.marygaumond.com) is using murrini in her work. It is absolutely fabulous! I wonder if any of it is a decal of enamel put onto glass, then encased? Murrini is the same “medium”; just a completley different, and much thicker technique.
   My inspiration with the decals is that I am able to take photo images and fuse them to my work. Nothing will absorb into it, the finish will last a life time! The same goes with Mary’s crystal clear encased buttons! (They are beautiful!)
   Vitrous (non absorbent) Glass finish.

   April 23rd, 2009 at 5:34 pm

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