Enamel Project

  To start of the enameling project, I made a sample of a champlave ant, to see if I liked the look of it. I realized while making that sample I probably wouldn't have enough time to make the amount of ants I originally wanted, but I liked how it turned out so I ended up with a goal of less ants. 

I began by cutting out five ants, attempting to get those skinny legs without making the copper too thin. I then drilled out the cells of the body to later be wet packed with enamel. I then filed the inside of the cells, and covered the back of each ant with hard solder. This took forever because of the small legs, but finally I got them all to flow and ready to sweat solder

I then cut out small backplates for each one, and while doing this I accidentally left one of my ants in the blades way, and accidentally cut it in half. I ended up cutting out another one quickly because I liked having five.

One by one, I then soldered each one to a backplate. I had a little trouble at first sweat soldering, but by the end of doing all five I was much more confident and was getting a good seam with one try. 

After getting them all pickled, I cut them out, which took a good chunk of time. I tried to cut as close to the edge as possible but after breaking a ton of blades it got further and further away. 

 I wanted to get the most of studio time, so I decided to do most of my filing and sanding at home and went straight to wet packing. I chose 1995 black opaque enamel and got to it. This is where I left off the ants, they were black from the kiln but at the end I am going to patina them with liver of sulfur. From there I am going to solder jump rings onto the backs of them and make a chain. I am excited for the final product!