Chimera Workshop Review - By Pat Nelson
Just before the coronavirus pandemic was starting to upend the lives of everyone, TES held its late winter workshops in Sebastopol, California. No surprise - early March in northern California is lovely with all the flowers and trees in bloom. It was even better for me since I had just left a late winter snowstorm in Indiana.
Two classes per session were taught in the Chimera space in downtown Sevastopol. Amy Roper Lyons generously shared her carefully researched and developed skills in plique-a-jour. All her students were able to complete finished samples and left with an understanding of the magic that allows enamel to remain in those little holes. Students constructed forms with soldered wires and pierced sheet silver. Amy also showed a PowerPoint explaining how she now uses 3-D modeling software to develop her metal matrices – a powerful melding of the very new digital technology with the very old craft of plique-a-jour enameling.
My decal workshop was a joy. Because of the pre-heating cycle necessary in much decal work, it is best to work in a well ventilated space. Imagine my delight, coming from central Indiana (fresh snowstorm) to Sonoma county California (all trees and flowers in bloom). Not only did we have ventilation, but we rigged up a decal preheat system outdoors in the balmy northern California breezes. I have been researching and updating my decal information in the last several years which I happily shared with my terrific students.
We welcomed a long time enamel goddess back into the enamel teaching world. Many of us remember the exquisite enameled brooches of Rebecca Laskin from the 1980s and 90s. I first became aware of Rebecca’s enamels by way of a number of exhibitions and periodicals of that era, including “Craft today – Poetry of the Physical” an influential exhibition with its accompanying magnificent catalogue published in 1986. I was intrigued at her control of color, almost like small color field paintings. Rebecca left the enameling world for a while but she is back – back to teaching and producing her beautiful compositions developed by drawing, sifting, painting, and stoning through previous layers. It is a unique abstract painterly approach to enameling – one that adds so much to our repertoire.
A highlight was the Wednesday evening pizza and firing night at KVO in Santa Rosa. Judy Stone and Steve Vandyk welcomed a number of workshop participants to “Play Day at the Annex”, an opportunity to tour the unbelievable KVO facilities and produce small enamel plaques, completed and fired in two hours in their garage sized kiln. The KVO facility is a must see for any enamelist.
While we realize that our summer workshops were cancelled due to the corona virus pandemic, we are still trying to decide if these off conference year workshops are a desirable feature for our membership. The jury is still out – but we want to partner with enamelists from all regions of the US, and to complement already established calendars. Please let us know what you think and if these workshops are a benefit to you, our members.
