Last Monday I was all excited to start my enamels class and wanted to make sure I didn’t waste a minute of potential kiln time, so I did some prep work. I got out my dwindling supply of ferric chloride and put in a few copper pieces to etch. I used asphaltum (black) on some and DecoColor paint marker (red) on others so I could try both methods and see the results on the same design. The asphaltum holds up better in the acid, but needs to be painted on and does not lend itself to detailed design (or maybe I just need to find better brushes). The DecoColor paint marker is far easier to draw with, but breaks down a lot faster. I think this was the last run for the ferric chloride (or close to it) as it took me six hours to etch this deep when it usually only takes around three.

Unfortunately I did all that prep work and then my class was canceled (for the third week in a row) due to the fact that the DC area can’t handle an inch of snow. The coffee shop I went to on Tuesday closed at 4:30 “due to weather” as well. DC needs to learn how to deal with snow, it’s not like we’ve never had it before. At least today I finally have my first class.