enamelworkArticle Free Pass - Materials and techniques -
Contributors & Bibliography - Materials and techniques -
Contributors & Bibliography This process is the opposite of the
cloisonné technique: instead of building up on the surface of
the metal object, the surface is gouged away, creating troughs
and channels separated by thin ridges of metal that form the
outline of the design. The troughs are filled with powdered
enamel and fused. The champlevé technique requires a thick metal
base and therefore is used on copper and other base metals. This
technique is a sophisticated extension of the champlevé method,
for again the metal surface has to be cut away and filled with
enamel, but here there are two major differences. First, within
the area that has been cut away to receive the enamel, a design
or figural composition is chased (chiselled), or sometimes
engraved, in low relief. Because the highest point of the relief
is below the general surface of the surrounding metal, the
enamel, which is level on its ou