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After my return to my home in Cameron, Missouri, I purchased a kiln for $35 in which to fire or bake the enameled pieces. Then I ordered some copper ash trays and a set of eight colors of enamels from a Chicago firm which also publishes a booklet on enameling, for $1, which is very helpful to the beginner. I read everything I could find on enameling but there were not many books available. The Encyclopedia Britannica has interesting information on the history and various methods involved but text books on how to do it are few. I shall recommend some that I have found helpful at the end of this article.

In my search for information I found some interesting facts about the history of enameling. It is one of the oldest forms of decoration, dating back to the magnificent enameled walls of the palace of Rameses III and of Nimrod of Babylon. In the fourth and fifth centuries B. C. the Greeks and Romans enameled exquisite jewelry. From the sixth to the ninth century we find the Celtic and Saxon enamels developing and from there the art went to Byzantium. Italy and France have been responsible for the beautiful developments in methods of application and design. Through the years there have been various revivals of the art and today we are experiencing another one, due perhaps to the fact that science has advanced and given us better enamels and purer metals. It might be of interest to note here that enamel is a silicate colored by oxide of metal.

MY NEXT move after getting my first materials and equipment was to make some wire racks to form a stand upon which to rest the enameled piece during the firing. These racks can be made of hardware cloth, one-half-inch mesh, with the edges bent down about an inch to form legs. I got some metal tongs at the drugstore to use in lifting the enamels in and out of the kiln. A spatula or pancake turner can also be used by sliding it under the rack. My first mistake was in buying a top-loading kiln instead of the front-loading kind. This greatly increased my difficulty in getting pieces in and out of the hot kiln. Also it had no pyrometer (heat indicator) and the cone temperature was all right for starting the work, but as the heat increased I had no way to judge the degree but by experience. My first pieces were therefore discouraging and I was tempted to give the whole thing up. However, I am a bit Scotch by nature and inheritance and felt I had too much invested to quit. Now I am very glad I went on with it, because after a year's experience I was selling work in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, and exhibiting my work in shows elsewhere.

AS TO the procedure in enameling: First, the metal must be thoroughly clean. This is done by removing all grease either by heating the metal to a dull red heat, or by dipping in a strong alkali cleaner compound. Remember that your fingers leave grease marks from the natural skin oils so use gloves whenever possible. I scrubbed my pieces with kitchen cleanser and then tested as to cleanness by immersing in water. When the piece is removed, if the water is a smooth film on the metal, the surface is clean; if the water is irregular or spotty, further cleaning is indicated. Dry the piece carefully and dip it in your cleaning solution, which is made of one part sulphuric acid to four parts water and heated to boiling in a glass or porcelain dish. I use oven ware glass pans.

Sulphuric acid may be obtained from a drugstore. Your solution is called a pickle. Be careful always to add the acid to the water and not vice versa as a violent reaction takes place. Also as a word to the wise, remember that the acid will eat clothing and burn your skin, so handle it cautiously. I learned the hard way, ruining a dress, a smock, a rug, even spattering it on the ceiling when I dropped the bottle one day and it splashed into another room and onto a pile of freshly laundered sheets. Everywhere it went it left holes. So now I have a rubber apron, and heat the acid on an electric hot plate in the studio and do not carry it back to the kitchen as before.

Dip the metal in acid for several minutes, until it is a clean pink copper color; then rinse in clear water and dry quickly. Now your metal is ready for the enamel. For your first piece make it simple—just an even coat of white enamel. Spray the copper with a solution of gum tragacanth or agar, using a small insecticide sprayer. The gum can be bought at a drugstore and a solution made by adding ¾ ounce of gum tragacanth to one part of water and soaking it for twenty-four hours. Then beat it thoroughly and soak another twenty-four hours and screen through a fine sieve, or use a discarded nylon hose. Agar can be purchased and the solution made by using ½ ounce agar to one gallon of hot water. Allow it to stand overnight and strain the same way as for the gum. The agar or gum is used to set enamels or glue them in place while being handled. Now the enamel may be dusted on the metal by shaking it through a sieve. Enamel comes in lump or powdered form. I use the powdered form ground eighty-mesh almost entirely, except for certain variations in which I use the lump. Experienced enamelists like to grind their own from the lump form but it is a very tedious process and not suited for the beginner. Again I find use for my old nylon stockings by cutting a piece to fit the top of a small glass jar and holding it by a rubber band. This forms a sieve. (My husband insists I buy him instant coffee just so I can have the jars for my enamel!) The enamel should be stored in covered jars when not in use. The cover will fit over the nylon.

WHEN DUSTING the enamel on the metal, use a clean piece of paper underneath. Then, whatever falls to the paper can be saved and put back in the jar. Care should be taken to get as even a coat as possible, covering the copper completely, but not too thickly. With a little practice it is possible to judge the amount fairly accurately. The piece is then placed on the wire rack, dried thoroughly (about an hour or more), lifted with the tongs and put into the kiln which has been heated to a temperature of about 1,500 or 1,550 degrees. The approximate firing time is three minutes, but enamels vary slightly in their melting points and until you become familiar with them, watch your piece, checking every minute. You can watch through the peep hole in the kiln or by opening the door a crack. The piece will at first have a dark appearance, then become reddish brown in color, and the enamel will start to soften but be bumpy or pebbly in appearance. When it smooths out, take the piece out of the kiln and examine the surface. If not entirely smooth and glassy return to the kiln for further heating. After a few trials one learns how a piece should look—but profit by my mistake and never leave it in longer than five minutes. I kept waiting for the piece to get really red and left it in a half hour, thinking the kiln wasn't hot enough and of course all color was burned out of the enamel. Sometimes if your kiln is extra hot, two minutes is sufficient. Small pieces may be fired with a torch instead of in the kiln and then one is able to watch the process at all times. It is fun to watch it change colors while going through the cooling process.

After the piece is fired the back of it must be cleaned again by immersing it in the hot dilute sulphuric pickling solution. One should have some copper tongs to use in dipping it in the acid. When the copper is free from the black oxide that has formed, it is rinsed in water and dried and ready for the next step.

Now you have a ground coat of white on the copper upon which designs may be applied. One method of decoration is to shake a contrasting color over the fired enamel and draw through it to the white underneath with a pointed stick, pencil, or brush handle. This is called sgraffito. Suppose we shake a red enamel over the white and then make an initial or monogram by drawing through the red to the white. This gives us a white initial on a red background. The piece is fired again and then cleaned in the pickle. If desired, a coat of transparent enamel called flux may be applied over the first two coats and fired again. This gives added depth and smooths out any ridges which may have formed in cutting through the red to the white. If the piece doesn't suit you, don't throw it out, just apply another coat and keep trying. Some of my pieces have been fired six or eight times to get certain effects. If the enamel should crack or chip off, it is probably on too thick in spots. Sometimes these can be patched by filling in with enamel wet with agar, dried, and fired again. Be sure your piece has dried sufficiently before firing or the moisture will cause bubbling or blistering.

WHEN THE piece is finished and cleaned in the pickle, the edges of the copper may have a dark appearance. They should be cleaned by rubbing with a carborundum hand stone. Wet the stone and rub it horizontally across the edge until the clean copper appears. Steel wool, triple 0, can be used to polish up the back of the piece and then a clear lacquer may be applied to keep finger prints from tarnishing it. Or, you may wish to enamel the back also—counter-enamel, we call it. In that case, do the inside of the piece first and then turn it upside down on the wire rack, spray with agar, shake on the enamel, and fire again. Counter-enameling is essential on large pieces which would tend to warp otherwise, or on lighter weight metal. When you order your copper, get eighteen- or twenty-gauge. The twenty is fine for small pieces, eighteen for larger ones.

Enamels come in both opaque and transparent colors and some very beautiful effects may be obtained by using them in various combinations. One method of decorating is to use the clear enamel or flux as a ground coat which allows the brilliance of the copper to show through and after it is fired to use the transparent colored enamels over it. Another method of application of enamel is what is known as wet-charging. This simply means that you mix a small amount of powdered enamel with gum or agar solution, wetting it just enough to hold the enamel particles together. The wet enamel is then applied with a brush or pointed tool and pushed into the desired place. The enamel thus used has a consistency of wet sand. I find a dentist's discarded tool handy for this purpose, but often a pointed brush will do as well.

PERHAPS I had better say a word about designs. Since I have had previous art training I use original designs, but even these are derived from ideas acquired by studying other designs or observing the possibilities in various combinations of forms in fruit, flowers, geometric shapes, birds, fish, etc. For the beginner, with little or no art training, I suggest the use of geometric shapes—circles, squares, triangles, and combinations of these. If you've had geometry you may remember, the variety of designs made while doodling with a compass. Start with something simple at first. One of my most effective small pieces has only a number of balloon shaped dots in various colors applied over a chartreuse ground coat. After that is fired a light sprinkling of turquoise blue enamel is made in between the dots and a third firing done.

In making your design, draw it first on paper and then transfer it by means of carbon to the enameled piece. Then use the wet-charging method, described above, to apply the color. After you have made a few pieces, ideas will come to you, especially if you are observant. You'll find suggestions in magazines, drapery and dress material, even wallpaper and flower catalogues. There is a helpful book, too, called "2,000 Designs," by Michael Estrin. To give variety to your designs, pieces of gold or silver foil may be used under transparent enamels, making a very lovely effect. One can experiment, too, using bits of copper screen wire, glass beads, and lump enamels to form different arrangements. The fun lies in using your own ingenuity. You'll find that the colors and combinations of enamels are endless and varied and never cease to please the eye.

There are a number of other types of enameling which are described in the books I shall list, but I want to mention one of them here, the cloisonne, which is perhaps the best known. You have no doubt seen inexpensive Chinese cloisonne pieces in gift shops. In making this type, fine silver or copper wires are soldered to the metal background in the shape of the desired design. The sections thus formed are then filled in with the enamel and fired.

Besides copper, silver and gold may be used for enameling and are best for jewelry. Steel may also be used if first coated with cobalt blue enamel and then white. You may wish to hammer your own shapes of bowls and dishes as you become proficient. Beating out your own metal shapes requires a good bit of practice and skill so the pre-formed ones are best for beginners, but making your own is more fun and gives you greater variety of shapes. You'll need a sand bag, a wooden mold, various hammers, a rawhide mallet, a steel stake, vise and other tools if you plan to shape your own. My husband became interested in the hand-hammered ones and has helped design and beat out a number of them for me. An electric motor for using a wire brush and buffs to polish your metal is useful and a timesaver, but you can add that as you go along. Start small and add to your supplies as you find just what you need—always trying to buy the best, as it is least expensive in the long run. You can't do good work with poor tools.

AFTER MY first discouraging pieces the next began to look better, and finally there were some I thought might sell. After reading about the Plaza Art Fair held in Kansas City in the summer of 1950, I decided to go and see what could be sold. It was more than gratifying to sell about $35 work of ash trays in the three evenings the fair was held. The comments of the customers were also encouraging and their suggestions helpful. One man suggested I cut out a piece for the cigarette to fit in and another told me of a place I could have the metal spun into various shapes according to my design. I have since had some dinner plates and bowls spun that way. The plates are ten inches across with a two-inch border and then a slight depression in the center. The bowls are seven inches across the top and taper gradually to three inches at the bottom. Spinning the copper leaves a very nice turned edge.

Not being quite sure what to charge for my pieces I priced them according to some I had seen in gift shops and found my small two-inch ash trays at $1.75 and $2 selling pretty well. The three-inch ones brought $3 and so on according to the amount of work in the design and size of the piece. In September, 1950, I made a trip to St. Louis and took some enamels to the Carroll-Knight Gallery there to see if they might be interested in selling them for me. They took all I had on consignment and were able to sell a number for me at Christmas time. When stores take things on consignment they usually mark them up a third above your price. If they buy them outright they have to get double your price. I mention this because it has to be taken into consideration in pricing your work in order to know what the market will bear.

As a result of my work being shown at the Art Fair I was asked to join the Mid-America Artists' Association with the privilege of selling my work through its gallery at the Kansas City Art Institute. I have been fortunate in having checks from sales there coming in every month. The Association is open to anyone upon payment of $5 a year dues. Membership permits one to exhibit in its annual members exhibition and to have work shown in its gallery where a competent woman is in charge of sales. The association gets 25 per cent commission. The work shown in the gallery must be original and although it is not submitted to a jury there is a committee of members in charge of exhibition and display and if your work is not suitable you will be informed. I know of one case in which they returned a woman's $5 dues because the type of things she sent were not suitable. I think the reader will understand that something like crocheted hot pads would not be fitting in an art gallery.

The Plaza Art Fair is sponsored by the Mid-America Artists' Association and anyone is free to exhibit provided his work is original and of such a nature as to fit in an art exhibition. There is no jury and each artist arranges his booth to suit himself and acts as his own salesman. The fee for rental of booth space is $3 for one or $5 for two. I found it to my advantage to use two spaces. I had to provide my own card tables for display of my enamels, but hanging space for pictures is provided in the booth. There are Art Fairs held in other cities, such as Colorado Springs and Los Angeles and Dallas, and they I presume are handled in much the same manner. One can find out about them by reading the paper or calling his local art museum.

There are art associations in almost every state and in any city of size and nearly all are open to anyone upon payment of dues. Their exhibits are usually juried but some have one exhibit annually just for members which is not juried. One can find out about exhibitions over the country by looking in the magazine American Artist under "Where to Show." Local art exhibits will be listed in the newspapers. I sold some enamels in an exhibit in Mississippi and sent some to the Missouri State Fair and won first prize in 1950. My biggest thrill, however, was to have my large hand-beaten bowl accepted in the all-Missouri exhibit held at the St. Louis Art Museum and have it sell for $15. This was a juried show and the fee for entering was $1. Not all exhibits have entry fees and some of them have such high fees as to be prohibitive, to me, at least. The artist pays the shipping charges both ways unless his work is accepted and then in a number of the leading museums it is returned to him pre-paid. It is always something of a gamble so I usually count up my expenses and decide if the chances at a prize or of selling my work make it worth-while.

ALL OF my pieces that I have mentioned thus far were done in the old top-loading kiln in spite of accidents like dropping the pieces and shaking the enamel off before firing, burning my hand (I now wear heavy gloves), and spoiling some by dropping them on the edges and cracking the enamel. Since last April I have a new front-loading kiln with a pyrometer and large enough dimensions to fire my big plates and bowls. My enamel is purchased in pound lots now instead of by the ounce, which is a great saving, and I even get my sulphuric acid by the gallon.

Last summer the Art Fair was held late in June for three days and I was very pleased to sell nearly $70 worth and also to have representatives of two gift shops who saw my work there ask to handle it in their shops. One of them is the Hotel Phillips Gift Shop, Kansas City, where I now have some on display. Also a jewelry repair firm asked for my card so as to get in touch with me when they needed someone to repair enameled jewelry. Several men asked why didn't I design some cuff links, so that is another idea to work on. I had made several pairs of earrings, some barrettes and a bracelet and at $2 a pair for the earrings I found them selling very well. I also took orders for some in different colors.

Besides selling enamels, I did some trading with other artists. It was very pleasing that Bruce Mitchell, nationally known painter, liked my enamels well enough to trade one of his lovely paintings for some of them, and I was also very grateful to have one of C. C. Carstenson's splendid wood carvings in exchange for some enamels. Mr. Carstenson teaches wood carving at the University of Kansas City and is chairman of the Mid-America Artists' Association.

One shape of tray in particular sold very well. It is what I call a spoon shape and is designed from an old fashioned spoon holder. The free-form shapes were quite popular too. It is wise to have a variety of shapes as well as a variety of colors and designs.

In making the earrings I used triangles of copper slightly concave (this can be done by hammering lightly on the steel stake or using a dapping die) and circles made convex and also some irregular shapes. The earring backs can be bought at the dime store or from ceramic firms and glued to the copper with cement or they may be soft soldered. Hard solder is best but in that case the soldering must be done before the piece is fired. Soft-soldering must be done afterwards.

If you think all this sounds like too much work or would take too much time, let me say that besides enameling I also find time to take care of my home and three children, do some painting, gardening, sewing, teach a class in ceramics, play in the church orchestra, etc. So don't be afraid to try enameling—it's really grand fun—and I hope you'll love it as much as I do.

Here are some books on the subject which I have found helpful:

"Enameling on Metal," by Louis-Elie Millenet.

"Porcelain Enamel Art for Beginners," by Edward Winter.

"The Vitrex Method for Enameling Copper, Silver & Gold," The Vitrex Co., Cleveland, Ohio.

"Jewelry and Enameling," by Greta Pack.

"Metal Craft and Jewelry," by Emil F. Kronquist.