About Me
Hi there,
I'm Merilyn, I live in Oakdale NSW, a small semi rural town on the SW outskirts of Sydney.
I have a small backyard Studio where I create a unique collection of bold and beautiful jewellery in Enamel and/or Silver, and some charming homewares, all made in Australia and designed to add a touch of individuality and colour to your personal style.
In the years my husband and I have lived here, we have created a large garden which provides me with endless inspiration, so my personal style is predominately influenced by the shapes and colours of the nature around me, and realised in a semi realistic or impressionistic manner.
I've created my website PicklepotJewellery.com to provide an outlet for the lovely things I make and to share them with anyone who's interested in the process or would love to own one of them.
Why Picklepot
A pickle pot is a staple tool in jewelry-making, especially for metalsmiths working with copper, silver, gold, or other non-ferrous metals. It is used to clean metal after soldering or heating, removing oxides and flux residue that accumulate during the process. The pickle pot holds a mild acid solution which is heated to improve its effectiveness. Pieces are placed in the solution and left for a short time until any firescale or other residue has dissolved.
Enamels
I've been working with enamels since 2019 and I enjoy them as much today as when I first started with them. There is always something new to learn or some new direction to take.
Enamels in all their lovely colourful gloss and variety are a wonderful medium, l love watching the piece change from dull raw sandy type powder to a fine shine and seeing the colours and designs reveal themselves in all their glossy glory, its alchemy.
I create handmade artisan pieces so while some pieces will be similar, as in a pair of earrings however they will never be identical, that is the nature of enameling.
A BIT ABOUT ENAMEL
Each piece begins with a sheet of copper or silver, the shape is hand cut and traditional Vitreous Enamels are applied and the piece is fired to set the design.
WHAT IS ENAMEL
Enamel is actually fused Glass.
The art of enameling is fusing glass to metal, most commonly copper although silver is used too for higher end pieces.
The standard process involves sifting multiple layers of glass powder onto a copper /silver piece and firing it layer by layer to temperature, around 800°C, each piece usually has 3-4 layers but sometimes many more layers and firings are needed depending on the complexity of the intended design and the colours chosen. The results can be unpredictable.
Once the initial firings are complete the piece may be ground back, refired, cleaned and polished before it's ready to be revealed, because of the nature of molten glass no two pieces will ever be the same.
I create a few different styles of enamel work:
Sifted Enamel is the basic process of Glass Enameling and is described above.
Hand Painted Enamels, for this type of work I use very finely ground enamel powders in solution. This is a delicate and time consuming process and requires careful application and sometimes many firings to produce the finished piece.
Cloisonné is a decorative technique that fuses enamel into recesses created by cutting and shaping fine silver wire and attaching that wire design to the base with heat. The design is then filled with the various enamels to create the piece. This can be quite a detailed process.
Champlevé is a decorative technique that fuses enamel into a recess in a metal surface, in my case fine silver and differs from Cloisonné in that the recesses are created by fusing larger pieces of metal onto a frame rather than having wiring applied to the surface.
COUNTER ENAMEL
Each Enamel piece is Counter enameled (Enameled on the back) in an enamel blend, usually grey speckled but this can vary. The counter Enamel is there to offset any stresses between the enamel on the front of the piece and the metal it's fired onto.
I've started writing a blog about my enameling journey, you can find it here
From time to time I also create a limited number of handmade artisan Silver pieces, some of my enamel pieces are also set in silver. I use both Sterling and Fine Silver and semiprecious gemstones to create beautiful pieces in many different styles.
If you’ve purchased my Jewellery I hope you are enjoying your beautiful new Jewellery, Enamel or Silver or both as much as I enjoyed making it, if you haven’t made a purchase as yet I hope you enjoy looking at my art and maybe one day owning a piece of it.
My Contact Details are:
Merilyn Hyde
PO Box 56
Oakdale NSW 2570
[email protected]
You can also find me in the following places
Linktr.ee/apicklepot
Thanks for your interest!