Is it Hot in Here?

After a week-long workshop in granulation with Jean Stark? It was sweltering!

The workshop began with everyone learning how to make the dome of the acorn from a piece of 22K gold. This took about three days of forming, and then adding on those miniscule granules one at a time. Sometimes they would sit nicely where they were supposed to go, and other times they would slip down or slither over to hook up with some other granule formations they had no reason being a part of. But it was definitely 3 days worth of work before reaching the point of being ready to begin fusing. Our brilliant teacher, Jean Stark, was at my side to watch over me as I began to fuse. My heart was actually beating fast and my palms were sweaty. I am not exaggerating about this. Just knowing three days of hard work could be melted away in a split second because of too much heat was very, very scary.

The torch was lit, put to the dome and heated until it was a bright, glowing red (I thought for sure it was going to just burn up and melt into one big blob). Jean gently encouraged me on how to use the torch, and little by little the granules fused to the gold. It all happens so quickly. Knowing when to stop and move the torch away before melting is a skill one develops over time I imagine. At this point in my granulation experience, which is practically zero, all I could do was try not to blink in case I missed the "flash" that told me the granules had fused.

Then it was on to making the bail, as well as re-firing the dome again and again to fuse wayward granules. I must have torched this dome at least 10 times, so you can probably imagine how happy I was to bring this baby home all in one piece.