Enameling Class

I had my first enameling class since learning enameling while living in South Korea. The class was a community ed class and took place in a local middle school shop room. The class was $80.00 for three hours.

I arrived at the school about 15 minutes early and found that our teacher hadn't arrived yet. So I sat down on a bench while a few more students arrived. The teacher finally got there at 6 which was when the class was to begin.

We made our way into the room along with his two bins of supplies. He let us know that he knew very little about enameling and when we left that night we would know just a little less than him. I didn't think that, along with being late, was a good start. He spent the first half hour explaining enameling.

I was interested in how to clean the copper since that is where I was hung up. He didn't have any answers for why my Korean copper would not clean but he said to stay clear of nitric acid which is what my Korean teacher uses. I've decided to get some U.S. copper and see how that works.

He said that the majority of the class would be about playing with the enamels. He really didn't give any instructions of things to do so luckily I had some ideas from my Korean classes. He said his job was to man the kiln.

We prepared the copper by cleaning it and then applying a liquid coat of enamel followed by a sifted dry coat. We did both sides at once which was very different than what I had learned in Korea.

Then we decorated the enamel any way we wanted. We had to finish up by 8:30 so his kiln could cool down. There were four of us in class and the others seemed to be having a great time. My intention was to have some instruction in English and perhaps learn something that my Korean teacher couldn't communicate.

All in all, it was nice to get out and meet new people but for now I think I will stick to my Nan, my Korean enameling teacher. She really is the best!