Prismacolor and Paint

The next class on my list was Color and Surface taught by renown enamel artist Harlan W Butt.  If you are not familiar with his work, please take a minute to check out his website http://harlanwbutt.com/home.html and be prepared to be amazed by his breathtaking cloisonne vessels.  He is truly a master and I was thrilled at the chance to learn from him.

The Color and Surface class was focused on learning different techniques for treating metal.  The techniques covered were applying Prismacolor and Paints, Enamelling including cloisonne & champleve as well as discussion of plique a jour, Etching, Patinas, Keumbo and Reticulation.

The first project was to produce a set of 18 samples using prismacolor pencils, prismacolor crayons, and various paints including acrylics and metal paints.

I started with 18 copper squares of the same size. I thought that it might be nice if all of the samples were unique and so I played around with the squares before adding the color pigments.  I ran some through the rolling mill with pieces of twisted wire in between to create patterns.  I dapped, hammered and patterned some of the others.  I also drilled holes in some so that they might be used in jewelry pieces. Before I began applying color, I sandblasted all of the base pieces so that the colors would have a better chance of adhering.

Above you can see the various designs I came up with. I was most pleased with the look, feel and finish of the prismacolor pencil.  I especially like the center, top piece, as something about the movement throughout is pleasing to me.  I also love the way the two space vistas came out.  As could have been expected, the acrylic paint that I used, was easily peeled off of the metal. I was too impatient for the metal paints to get overly creative with them, although being specifically made for metals they adhered well.

Although they are not the best images, above you can see two necklaces created with primacolor sample components.