Friday, January 21, 2011

Niello! Nee-ello, ni-ello, you say potayto I say potahto...



I'm not quite sure how to pronounce this, but I love the effect anyway. Of course, working with lead is a bit of a drawback.... the black parts of the design are created by "a mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal. The Ancient Egyptians are credited with originating niello decoration, which spread throughout Europe during the late Iron age and is common in Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and other types of Early Medieval jewellery." (Thank you wikipedia!)



I love the black! It is just solid and there. I've done a series of illustrations using mostly black calligraphy ink, here is an example:


I'm not sure if they are super related, but I feel there is a slight connection.

Here is something a bit more recent that I've been working on lately. I think the connection here is much clearer, yes?:



I am loving these gold and silver paint pens I recently bought.. Pen-touch and Krylon, I'm sure your noxious fumes might one day lead to my demise, but I care not!

I probably won't ever work with niello, but I think I might look into some enameling classes soon. I'm going to do a bit of research and maybe write a quick post about the different types of enameling out there (I'm almost 100% sure that I would be most interested in cloisonné, but who knows!?).

Okay, not the most coherent of posts, but I'm hungry for lunch right now and am probably not thinking clearly. Have a great weekend everyone!

No comments: