About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

C is for Cloisonné



Not quite up to Peter Carl's famous jewelled 'Faberge' eggs of Imperial Russia's Czars, but pretty nevertheless. My favorite type of decorative object - if I have just one! - as cloisonné tends to very rich colours due to the depth of the enamel - powdered glass - while the little trails of metal always give it an outlined, cartoon-like, quality.

Cloisonné is a method of enameling, especially curved objects, by reducing the area to be covered by breaking it into lots of little areas or chambers, using thin metal wire or ribbon which is then soldered into place.

The chambers are then filled with enamel powder (or on something as curved as this; a paste) and when fired it won't flow beyond the 'walls' of the chamber (which on these eggs; is formed of fine brass ribbon) due to a type of 'water tention' keeping them within their bounds.

From a distance we can see it's a mass of blue chrysanthemums (a typical oriental or 'chinoiserie' motif) with the odd green leaf sprinkled among the blue.

This one is a mass of butterflies or moths flying hither and thither! I don't know the significance of the holes both these eggs have, but suspect it's related to the firing; as in somewhere to hang the egg in the oven without leaving a mark in the enamel? It may be for more straightforward, decorative 'hanging' purposes?

And . . . is that the Cherilea hen we looked at the other day? It makes a good painting guide!

2 comments:

Paul´s Bods said...

I started a collection of Papier mache coloured eggs years back..still got ém somewhere.

Hugh Walter said...

Get them on the Blog! You've got a year to find them...now you've missed this boat!!

H ;-)