JUDY PAGNUSAT
ENAMEL, METAL, CLAY, GLASS, FABRICATION

ENAMEL, METAL CLAY, GLASS, FABRICATION

“I am an artist who has always loved making art and in particular, drawing. Jewelry has been the perfect place to apply my drawings using etching, decals, and enamels. Whatever medium I work in— crochet, paper, glass, stones and metals—tend to become jewelry.”

Judy is a eclectic jeweler, working in many mediums. Glass was her first jewelry passion, which led her to metal clay,then on to metals, and now enamels. In recent years her favored materials have been glass and metal clay. Her new passion is metal fabrication, enameling, and up-cycled jewelry made from vintage flatware.

She loves sharing her excitement about various techniques knowledge by holding classes at her stucio and at other local venues. See more information about Judy and her classes at: www.judypag.com.

Processes:

Judy is an eclectic jeweler, working in many mediums. Glass and glass jewelry were her first adventures into sharing her art with others. Wanting to create elements to enhance her glass led to studying metal clay, which progressed to learning metal fabrications and becoming a metal smith.   In recent years her favorite materials have been metals and enamels, and she has now added up-cycled jewelry to her mix featuring vintage flatware.  

Processes:

Enameling is the process of layering glass onto metal. Judy designs and fabricates the metal piece, then sifts layers of powdered enamels on to create colors. Each layer is fired, and then more layers are added. The initial enamel layers are usually opaque, followed by translucent colors, which add shading and subtlety to the design.

Fabrication is the process of moving flat metal sheet and wire into a form. The metal pieces are cut, sawed, hammered, soldered, molded, textured, and patinated to create forms with dimension and shape.

Metal Clay is created by grinding metals very fine, mixing this metal powder with a binder and water to create a soft moldable clay. Once a piece is formed out of this clay, it is fired in a kiln, where the binder is burned off. What is left is a solid metal piece. Metal clay is a way anyone can make pure metal items using simple tools from their kitchen, including firing with a handheld torch.

Flatware Jewelry is made of old silverplate-coated silverware. Jewelry is created mainly with fork and spoon handles, to make pendants, earrings and rings. Fork tines can be used to make cats, dogs, elephants and octopus. The hollow knife handles can be used to make bells, birdhouses and tiny vases. Cutting and forming these items is difficult, as they are very strong, but special bending equipment is now used to help the process.