Miniature Enamel

     Miniature enamel, aka painted enamel, is a common technique for enamel plates. According to its substrate types, painted enamel can be divided into gold-plate enamel, silver-plate enamel, porcelain-plate enamel, iron-plate enamel, etc., which feature portraits, figures, scenery, and still lives.

       The technique of making painted enamel originated in the mid-15th century, initially for religion-themed objects and later increasingly for decorative handicrafts. It refers to the art of painting on a substrate with enamel and then firing the artwork with enamel glaze. It was introduced to Guangdong Province during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Simultaneously, an enamel miniature factory was set up to produce what was called "exotic porcelain" among the public and "Canton enamel" in the imperial palace. Despite the vicissitudes, some of the products made in the factory are available today.

 The procedures for making painted enamel are as follow: first, cover a bottom case with a layer of anti-deformation enamel glaze, and then add several layers of white glaze to a metal plate to ensure the bottom case and the corresponding upper case are resistant to high temperatures during the firing; the metal plate turns into a substrate after the firing. At last, paint on the substrate with colorful glaze. An enamel master varnishes the substrate with several layers of colorful glaze and paints fine patterns using a single-hair sable brush pen that can produce delicate brushstrokes.

        For painted enamel, the key is to ensure colors are distributed in the right places while avoiding color mixture or color eroding. So it is inadvisable to complete the painting at one time. If colors are mixed too much, the pattern will become blurred and unattractive after the firing. Instead, it is necessary to paint on one part, fire it, and then pain another part, followed by the firing again. Generally, this procedure needs to be repeated dozens of times before the painting is finished.

        In the last procedure, several layers of colorless transparent glaze are added to the painting for a better three-dimensional sense of the pattern. Sometimes a piece of miniature enamel must be fired dozens of times. If a mistake is made or a flaw (such as cracking, undesirable color mixing, etc.) is found in the procedure, the enamel will be deemed an irreparable failure and you have to start it all over again. That's why miniature enamel is amazingly expensive. In addition, it takes at least hundreds of hours to paint and fire a piece of miniature enamel. At the same time, a microscope is indispensable for painting on a small piece of enamel, so long-time work may hurt the maker's eyes.