Playing With Fire

Fire has always fascinated me. It's very existence is so mystical! It isn't a solid, or a liquid, or even a gas, is it? You can see it and feel it, smell it and hear it, but still  it is almost as if it were an optical illusion. I have always wanted a fireplace so that I can sit in front of it and watch the flames dance, slowly, gracefully consuming their fuel. I must say that I am NOT a pyromaniac by any means, but I find a roaring fire quite beautiful. It's ability to both create and destroy are amazing.
The combination of light and color in general captivate the mind and inspire creativity like nothing else, I think. Paintings, sculpture and jewelry are all about using light to project certain perspective into the eye, but buildings, gardens and even culinary masterpieces also have properties of light and color designed to create a mood.
As a kid, being forced to go to church every Sunday was at least mitigated by the beautiful stained glass windows which I spent many hours studying. The shapes and intense hues enlivened by the warm morning light passing through were my own form of spiritual meditation, albeit having nothing whatsoever to do with why we were supposedly there to begin with.
I have done just a little experimenting with torch-fired enameling...enough to get a feel for the process. After thoroughly reading Linda Darty's book, "The Art of Enameling", I think I am ready to try more. The ideas are flowing through my head at a pace too fast for my skills, and I only hope that I can catch up before those ideas disappear.
Being able to fire a piece outside of a kiln and actually watch the glass frit melt in front of you is fun. I could never get into casting pieces of jewelry because half the process takes place out of sight. Any number of things can go wrong that you only discover after going through the whole schlemiel. Although I haven't yet done any kiln-firing, I think I would  feel the same about putting pieces into a closed kiln to complete the piece... I would rather be able to watch it happen.
Getting ready to begin is taking a bit longer than anticipated, as I have to sift all of my colors into various particle sizes. I only have one set of sifting screens at the moment, so I've got to wash them after each color to avoid contamination. Once that is done, I can start firing some test pieces!
Cloisonne, Plique au Jour and Champleve are all techniques which I am anxious to try. Linda's book doesn't say anything about being able to use copper wire for cloisonne, probably because it is difficult to clean oxides from the wires between firings. I am going to try it anyway, to see what happens. I also have no idea if using a product like PennyBrite to clean the copper will contaminate the glass...I wish I could contact Ms. Darty to ask...Oh well, that is what experimenting is for.
 Hopefully, I will have some photos of the first few test pieces to post next week. I want to wait on doing any firing until our current home renovation installation is done. We are welding steel stair stringers into the stairwell this week, and the torch is frequently in use. I'd rather be able to keep going once I start, without interruptions. In the meantime, I will keep sifting and sketching designs!