Enamel | Substrate – Revaluing lost craftsmanship

About

John’s career in making spans some thirty years: his practice is rooted in a fascination for exploring the creative value of processes employed by defunct Midland metal working ‘toy’ trades and a passion for satirical story telling through object making.

Enamel | Substrate is the culmination of John’s practice-based PhD investigating the [lost] craftsmanship employed in the 18th South Staffordshire enamel trade. The trade made objects for the person and the home such animal-shaped snuff boxes, Rococo and Neo-Classical styled candlesticks and Medieval armour shaped mustard pots, from paper thin copper foil coated with enamel. John’s past craft practice identified a knowledge gap in literature with regard to the manufacture of the fundamentally important copper substructure of these objects.