Cloisonné Enameling

Three days, Thursday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm each day. Our booking system only shows the start day.

Fine silver wire, packed enamel, and a technique from the Ming dynasty.

Cloisonné, pronounced kloi-ze-nay, means bending tiny silver wires into cells and filling each one with a different color. It's slow, precise, and completely absorbing. Six hundred years on, nobody has found a better way to do it.

What you'll learn

• How cloisonné works, from the ground up
• Wet packing and firing enamel on a domed silver blank
• Bending and placing fine silver wire into your own design
• Layering colors and building them to a smooth surface
• Firing well enough to know when to stop
• Finishing, which means grinding enamel level with the wires and polishing it back up

How the days go

• Day 1. Wet pack enameling and preparing your silver blank.
• Day 2. Designing and placing your wires.
• Day 3. Filling cells, firing, and finishing.

What it costs A $55 materials fee at the end covers fine silver blank and wire, lead-free enamels, and all tools and equipment.

What to bring An image or an idea to work from. Everything else is here.

All photos are our students' work.