The Plus One Collective: An international exhibition focusing on enamels

Barbara McFadyen
Through the traditions and language of jewelry, my work explores the many techniques and challenges of enameling and metalsmithing, as I seek to embody moments of time, layers of memories, or expressions of beauty and mystery. My inspirations are deeply connected to the beauty and power of the natural world with its intricate details and captivating patterns. I believe the sense of awe encountered while observing the flux of nature, cycles of life, and stirring beauty within nature can serve to remind us of our place in the world and help find new meaning beneath the layers of the hectic every-day. I hope that what I create will come into someone else’s life and shift the balance of their world a little further into the direction of beauty.

Ben Cooke-Akaiwa
I have had a long-standing love affair with color in my work. Color is a safe place for me, and I often return to it. Like a jeweler to a diamond, I cannot seem to help myself. Metals have a color to them, yet feel largely colorless to me, the dull gray of the steel I work with begs to be covered. I add the lacking vibrancy through enamels, spray paint, and powder coating. This heavily saturated color palette challenges the innately austere surface of the steel.

The surfaces of these brooches reference mid-century color field painting. The resulting abstracted landscapes do not reference reality but still evoke a sense of place. Perhaps the side of a building, a series of hills, or a dead-end road.

Cathy Trimbrall
My recent large, enamelled pieces are constructed from a vitreous enamelled piece of copper, some of which have been surface textured through etching. Enamel is applied by shifting layers of enamel onto the surface, sometimes using a stencil with very fine enamel powder or using the sgraffito method for scratching the surface to reveal the enamel underneath. Some enamels have fire-scale or sand added as well to give texture and the surface of the enamel matted with matting salts. The copper and enamel are fired in a small kiln at 850oC for up to 2 minutes. The process may be repeated many times. When the piece is complete, I mount it in a sterling silver mount and fix a stainless-steel pin to the handmade brooch fittings. All my pieces are Hallmarked at the London Assay Office.

Courtney DiMare
My approach to enamel is intuitive and expressive. I embrace its fragile and fickle nature while trusting how strong it can be. I find the balance through multiple layers of copper and enamel. The textures on the surface become micro landscapes that one can investigate closely as it guides the eye through the piece. Unified under a blanket of white enamel, these landscapes are reminiscent of the preciousness of an untouched snowscape. Temporary and ever-changing.

Daniel DiCaprio
My work is an exploration of transitional moments. The process of adaptation and evolution informs my practice by highlighting the instant when something is forced to change. I seek to emphasize this moment of intersection in particular and maximize the tension it creates. Referencing what we are and where we came from, the pieces are created to articulate the tenuous balance between survival and destruction that all life forms maintain in the world.

Drew Baker
I find the ability to make images in glass and metal particularly compelling. The unique ways in which light works with these materials and the relative durability of the product are very appealing. Topics that inform and influence my work include cosmogony, semiotics, archetypes, numbers, language, science, religion, aesthetics, and others.

Grant Turner
I find the ability to make images in glass and metal particularly compelling. The unique ways in which light works with these materials and the relative durability of the product are very appealing. Topics that inform and influence my work include cosmogony, semiotics, archetypes, numbers, language, science, religion, aesthetics, and others.

Marlene True
These pieces are inspired by the vibrant microcosms of life found in the pools of water along the sounds of Eastern North Carolina and the beaches of Key West, Florida. Each pool is its own miniature world, teeming with unique organisms, colors, and textures that mirror the larger ecosystems surrounding them.

True captures the essence of these environments by focusing on the intricate details and contrasts found within these tiny habitats. The play of light on water, the movement of marine life, and the hidden beauty of these coastal microcosms are all reflected in her work. Rather than replicating these natural scenes directly, Marlene infuses each piece with the sense of wonder and joy that these coastal pools inspire, creating a deep connection to the rich and vibrant life they contain.

Sarah Loch-Test
My enameled jewelry depicts the impacts of nostalgia and neglect of industry and urbanization. I also examine how processes like mining and oil drilling impact and alter the environment. Cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, represent a new era of precious American industry. They have the potential to provide a returned sense of manufacturing pride. Wind turbines are new monumental structures that decorate our landscape, however clean energy is also a threat to those nostalgic for steel mills and coal mines. In contrast to these monumental structures, some of my pieces zoom into areas of industrial architecture, focusing on intimate and obscure details.These pieces are more ambigious as to their source of inspiration.I use various techniques to make images permanent in enamel, including the use of decals and laser etching. A range of enameling techniques allows me to paint precisely or make an abstract design or pattern.

Sishi Wang
I create objects that reflect on elements from everyday life through hand fabrication. Since I have been away from home for years, everyday objects are the bridge that connects my motherland and my current place in the world: the past version of me and the current me. What we experience every day influences us in a myriad of ways. I hold these formative experiences dear

because I value how they have shaped me. I celebrate what makes me different and know others will relate. My experiences in the United States and China inform my identity and are a central inspiration for my practice. I embed symbolism from Chinese culture and my understanding of the world in my work.

My current goal is to tell my stories in a way so that viewers may find them more relatable. I want to continue to share part of me in the hope that viewers might find comfort and connection. I am trying to view my past experiences with contingency. And in turn, viewers are no longer solely reminiscing about feelings from the past – now they, too, are encouraged to imagine how they might change for the better in a brighter future.

Susan Mannion
I am a full-time professional artist and curator who is passionate about enamelling and printmaking, in particular, the specialism of vitreous enamel on copper and wood engraving. I work with paper, wood, copper and steel, making my mark with ink and coloured glass, each transformed by pressure in a press or heat in a kiln, an alchemy. My work both embraces the tradition of enamelling and wood engraving, and also seeks to push the boundaries of these artforms.

I am influenced by landscape and patterns in nature, fascinated by the meeting point or transition from one form to another, where water meets the shore or when hard architectural shapes are reflected on the soft forms of water in a river or lake surface. My work evolves from observed detail captured by sketching then laying down the image onto the vessel or copper plate surface creating intricate thread-like lines and fine textural incisions to create an atmospheric, surreal aesthetic, distilling a sense of place, time and memory.