The Way of Champlevé

The first step, obviously, is to come up with a design. Here's my initial design for the wasp necklace. I sketched it out, chose my color pallet, and cut the main shape out of Fine Silver. I'll fuse those two sheets together to form my base:


I always work on several projects at once. If I were to only do one at a time, it would take a lot longer, and it would become too precious-- I'd never take any chances. I'm making five separate necklaces in this particular run. After I've fused the two pieces of fine silver together, I cut out the exterior shape (yes, a bat necklace!):

Here are all my bases ready for some wire inlay and enamels:

I counter enamel the backs first:

Reds and browns look beautiful when enameled over gold leaf, which is applied before I've laid the wires down: