So, here's the thing.

I learned to enamel in undergrad with the amazing Sarah Perkins. She's probably one of the best enamelists in the country and I was truly lucky to work with her.

In undergrad, I enameled a lot. A lot. And while finishing my senior show, half of the pieces for which were enamelled, I realized that I don't like to enamel. I love other people's enamels, and I have great respect for the medium, but I'm not very good at it.

Enamelling takes patience, cleanliness, and a willingness to accept problems that you may not understand. I can sometimes have the patience, but the clean working is not my strength, and not knowing why something isn't working will take me from calm to crazy in 2 seconds.

However, I keep having opportunities in the enameling world--and I'm grateful for them. Currently I'm serving as the Exhibition Coordinator for the 2009 Enamelist Society's National Conference and at Kent State, I'm teaching beginning and advanced enameling and working to promote Kent's spectacular large-scale enamel kiln.

And that's why my Kent studio space looks like this right now:
I am determined to get better at enameling and learn to enjoy it as much as I can. And today, look what I did! (it's not done) I have to teach painting enamel to my advanced students, so I've been practicing, and while I certainly don't think it's great, I also don't think it's horrible--baby steps. And so far nothing has inexplicably popped off, or cracked, or sunk, or discolored, or peeled, or...
Daily photo: 8/24/08