Lily pads with enamel gem

I post these pictures on my Flickr page and got many lovely feedbacks! And here, I would like to share some excitement of how I made these. It’s new pendant design of “lily pads with enamel gem” and pictures are taking to look like lily pads in the pond. I love these end result of it too but I must say, I love love love making these! I got “2001 Opal jewel effect” from Thompson Enamel out of curiosity. (hey, if I see something interesting I have to try it!) They look like rough rocks before firing. Then when you fire, it would look like real opal cabochons! I made bezel with fine silver wire and fused on to “pad” part. Kind of like when you do cloisonné. Cloisonné usually requires so many firing to build up enamel but because I put the “Opal gem” in the bezel doesn’t have to fire so many times! And you can see the beautiful milky opals glow through the color!
Maybe it wasn’t so much of brilliant new idea but it was so exciting to me! The enamels in the bezel look like “real gem” and that’s what I love most about enameling and reminds me why they are call “七宝” (seven gems) in Japan.