Melissa Long, age 15, of Tacoma, Wash., for her question:
HAS ENAMEL ART BEING AROUND LONG?
Enameling is the art of adding a glassy surface to an object by welding or fusion. The surface is usually applied for decorative purposes, but occasionally it is used for protection. The art of enameling goes back to the days of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.
Enameled walls were found in Ramses III's Egyptian palace and enameled tiles were discovered in the Babylonian palace of Nimrod.
Ancient Greeks and Romans then mastered the art of enameling. They made beautiful enameled jewelry and used enamel on sculptured bronze statues.
By about A.D. 250 the Irish had developed the art of enameling to a high level. A few hundred years later the British were making enamel clad gold and bronze ornaments for their shields and horse trappings.
From about A.D. 300 to 1000, artists of the Byzantine Empire made Constantinople (now called Istanbul) the enameling center of the world. They became masters of cloisonne enamels, an art form they learned from the Irish.
Cloisonne is one of the enameling art's highest forms. Thin metal strips following the outline of the pattern desired are fixed to the surface of an object by solder. The spaces between the lines are then filled with pulverized enamel before the object is fired in a furnace until the enamel is fused to the surface. Cloisonne is usually applied to silver although gold and copper are also used sometimes as bases.
By the 15th century, the center of enameling had moved first to Cologne and then to Limoges. '
The Chinese learned enameling from the Europeans but many of their pieces were made quickly and without the careful finish of older work. Then the Japanese took up enameling. Modern Japanese artists have specialized in fine cloisonne work on copper base and now produce much of the best artistic enameling of the world. Fine work is also done by artists in Russia, Sweden and Czechoslovakia.
Enamel is made of silica (quartz or sand), minium (red oxide of lead) and potash. The ingredients are melted together, allowed to cool slowly and then left to harden. The result is crude enamel in lumps or other shapes. This enamel is then placed in a mortar, covered with water and ground into a fine powder.
The powder is then mixed with gum and water to form a smooth paste. The paste is applied to an object with a brush or spatula. Next, the object is put into an enameling furnace to be fused. With heat (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), the glassy mass adheres firmly to the base.
Like glass, enamel can be translucent or opaque, colored or colorless. To color it, different kinds of metallic oxides are added.
Bases are usually of copper, gold or silver. A process for working with iron was patented in England in 1828. It is called porcelain enameling.