Arts & Communication METAL ENAMELING Leader Guide Pub. No. CIR009 WISCONSIN 4-H PUBLICATION HEAD HEART HANDS HEALTH Contents Before Each Meeting: Checklist ..............................1 Adhesive Agents or Binders ....................................6 Facilities Tools, Materials and Equipment Safety Precautions..................................................6 Resource Materials Kiln Firing and Table-Top Units Expenses Metal Cutting and Cleaning Planning Application of Enamel Colors Youth Leaders Other Cautions Project Meeting: Checklist ......................................3 Metal Art and Jewery Terms ...................................7 Purposes of 4-H Arts and Crafts ...........................................8 Components of Good Metal Enameling Futher Leader Training Sources of Supplies How to Start Working Prepare a Project Plan Bibiography ............................................................8 Evaluation of Projects Kiln Prearation and Maintenance ...........................6 WISCONSIN 4-H Pub. No. CIR009, Pg. Welcome! Be sure all youth are familiar with 4H158, Metal Enameling As a leader in the 4-H Metal Enameling Project, you only Member Guide. The guide suggests some tools (soldering need an interest in young people and metal enameling to be irons and propane torches), materials and methods which are successful. more appropriate for older youth and more suitable for larger facilities (school art room or spacious county center), rather To get started, contact your county University of Wisconsin- than your kitchen or basement. Rearrange these recommen- Extension office for the 4-H leadership booklets 4H350, dations to best suit the ages and abilities of your group’s Getting Started in 4-H Leadership, and 4H500, I’m a 4-H membership and your own comfort level as helper. Project Leader. Now What Do I Do? (also available on the Wisconsin 4-H Web Site at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/ As in any art project, a generous supply of tools and pubs/index.html). materials is wonderful, but not always easily available. You need not purchase all the items listed in this guide. Talk to You don’t need a visual arts background to be a project your county Extension office about helping you find project leader. For a good introduction to 4-H visual arts, plan on leaders who may give or lend you some of the items. Get the attending the 4-H Arts Leadership Lab held at Upham Woods word out in your county’s newsletter. Talk about your needs Environmental Education Center, Wisconsin Dells, each year. and you’ll be pleased at how many will respond. This lab is aimed at new and emerging arts leaders. For more information, contact your county Extension office. BEFORE EACH MEETING: CHECKLIST Facilities Following are some things you can do to help youth get the Check on all the facilities at the meeting place. You’ll need: most out of this project: a. Table space. Set up three or four different work areas for y Become familiar with the materials referred to in this guide. the group. y Help youth select goals they can likely achieve. At one area, youth select and cut pieces of copper, file the y Help them decide what tools, equipment and supplies edges and clean the surface of the metal. (Take care to they will need and what they can realistically expect to keep bits of steel wool, metal filings or other dirt from have. flying back onto clean surfaces.) y Help them understand and learn how to do the tasks they At the second area, the design and application area, place must do to carry out their plan. Do not do their work for all the vitreous glass and enamel powders. Here youth them. can apply the powder to and design on the copper. This area must be very neat and clean. Easy access to a sink is y Assist them in scheduling their time. also helpful (see below). Purchased pre-cut pieces of y Discuss progress with them occasionally. metal, usually copper, is a convenience but must also be y Help them recognize a good job from a poor one. thoroughly cleaned to remove all oils used during milling. Simple circles, squares and rectangles are available in y Commend them on things they have done well. A pat on various sizes conducive to good design. Pre-cut animal the back from you is one of the highest rewards they can shapes and the like will seriously limit design and receive. exploration. Also, such pre-cut shapes tend to suffer more y Help them understand where they need to improve. from burn-out due to the warping of their various small y Help them to know themselves, their strengths and projected parts (feet, tails, fins, beaks, etc.), causing the weaknesses, and to compete with their own abilities. enamel to fall away and the metal to oxidize. y Help them to evaluate what they have done and what At a third area, the firing area, place the torches and kilns. they have learned on the basis of the goals they set. Do If you have plenty of room, a fourth area might be set up not compare their progress with others. Each is unique for cleaning the backs and soldering on the findings. If and needs to be treated individually. space is scarce, the soldering can be done in the firing y Discuss responsibility to other youth in the project: area and cleaning can be done in the first area. You must cooperation, promptness, sharing, respect for safety, have at least three distinct areas as outlined above to do return of borrowed materials, etc. successful work. b. Table protection. Tables selected should be sturdy and easy to work on. Unless made of easily cleaned Formica- WISCONSIN 4-H Pub. No. CIR009, Pg. 1 like material, all areas should be protected first by scrubbing pads; “Sparex #2” or other pickle solution as newspaper, butcher or craft paper. At areas three and four, indicated in Safety section (acids). overlay the paper with a heat-resistant material. It is best y Adhesive gum, such as, “Klyr-fire”; “Amaco-gum”; agar, to raise this board an inch or two from the table surface tragacanth or Arabic gum solutions as in recipes given by setting it on small blocks of wood or on bricks. below; hair set gel or old fashioned wave setting solution. c. Water supply. Water is needed to “wash” the metal at Oil of Spike, Lavender oil, Squeegee oil, Oil of Clove or various stages, to moisten surfaces, dissolve and mix Amaco Enameling Oil is useful in some techniques, such solutions, and to wash up after you’ve finished. as, Grisaille and Limoges. y “Scalex,” “Scale-Off,” or “Amacote” for fire-scale Tools, Materials and Equipment formation (oxidation) prevention. Using tongs or twee- See that all tools, materials and equipment are ready for use. zers, very small pieces may be dipped in a saturated salt The following list is a guide, more or less complete. As you solution, if nothing else is available. plan for your 4-H project, you will need to make your own list y Various small, round, flat and soft inexpensive paint that best suits youth skills and goals. (See Image 1.) brushes for applying gum or scale preventer or for painting techniques. y Pieces or sheets of 16 or 18 gauge copper; fine (pure) y Electric kiln for enameling: front loaded, table top size silver; or, pre-coated or unfinished enameling iron tiles or (preferably with pyrometer and controller), or small panels. Copper tooling foil may be used for special enamel kiln, hot plate style with lift-off lid. (Optional: textural effects. If you choose silver sheet or wire, propane torch and tripod or coffee can kiln as described remember it melts at a lower temperature than copper. in 4H158). Though gas kilns are available, they are not y Metal cutters, small tin snips, various size and style metal common. files and rasps, deep or piercing Jeweler’s saws with y Eutectic solder for silver (melts at 1460 degrees F), blades of appropriate types (2/0 for copper, 3/0 for silver). soldering torch, etc., needed for optional soldering y Sandpaper, emery cloth, nylon scouring sponges or procedure. Ordinary solder will not work as it melts at a cloths, or other synthetic “steel wool”; 150 and 200 grit temperature lower than that needed to fuse/melt the “Alundum” stones; “Fiberglas Rush” cleaning tool or enamel powder to the metal. stick brush; “Bright Boy” rubber abrasive stick; smooth y Non-combustible plywood board, furnace floor blanket or and rough Carborundum stones. Metal steel wool should similar heat resistant surfacing material for placing on be avoided because the fine wires tend to fly about and worktables to receive hot items from kiln for cooling. contaminate work nearby. Of course, steel wool can be used out of doors or at a place far away from the work y Nichrome steel wire racks; steel trivets or ceramic stilts; area. heavy steel firing forks and spatulas; old steel sole-plated iron (discards are often available at garage sales) to use y A paste of pumice powder and water; coarse (Kosher) salt as a weight on pieces removed from kiln to prevent and white vinegar; non-lotion detergent liquid (like warping. Palmolive Green); non-chlorinated non-abrasive scouring powder (like Bon Ami); Amaco metal cleaner or Amaco y Homemade or purchased enameling inlay tools; discarded copper powder cleaner; and various small stiff brushes, dental tools; wooden sandwich picks; tweezers (various such as, old toothbrushes or fingernail brushes; nylon sizes); small embroidery size scissors; homemade or Image 1: Basic enameling tools WISCONSIN 4-H Pub. No. CIR009, Pg. 2 purchased enamel sifters, with 60 mesh brass wire screen. sion office for further discussion of the creative experience Some suggest sifters made of nylon 60 denier hosiery but for youth.