Enamel
Coloured glass fused by firing onto metal, and sometimes glass or ceramic, producing a hard, brilliant and lasting surface.
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About
Enamel is powdered glass, coloured with metal oxides, applied to a surface and fired until it melts into a smooth, glossy layer. Techniques are named for how the colour is held. In cloisonné, thin wires fixed to the base form cells for each colour, a method used in Byzantine icons and refined in Ming-dynasty China. In champlevé, hollows are cut or cast into the metal and filled, as in the medieval enamels of Limoges. Painted enamel, developed in Limoges in the late 15th century, applies colour freely like a picture.
Enamel has long decorated jewellery, reliquaries, watches and snuffboxes. The Fabergé workshops in St Petersburg laid translucent enamel over engine-turned gold, and Art Nouveau jewellers such as René Lalique used plique-à-jour, an unbacked enamel like miniature stained glass. Industrial vitreous enamel later coated signs, stoves and baths. Look for glassy colour and fine metal outlines.
