Ricky Frank Enamels Background

In high school, for my part time job, I helped out in my father's electronic instrument
business. I worked in our basement, bending and soldering the tiny wires of
thermocouples, as I listened to rock and roll music. My mother complained that
he was spoiling me; I would never want to have a REAL JOB!

It wasn't until I graduated from college (B.A. Psychology) that I renewed my interest |
in art. Pulling my hobbies from a closet in my parents' basement, I began enameling
again because I didn't know what else to do with my life. It took little skill to fire
a piece and watch beautiful colors emerge. And it was FUN!

At this very impressionable stage of my career, I went to a local craft show and saw
the beautiful cloisonné jewelry of Gael and Howard Silverblatt. I was blown away.
Never had I imagined that the same glass powders that I was playing with could be
made into something so exquisite. I decided that I wanted to make a cloisonné enamel
piece as beautiful as what I saw at that show. I became committed to teach myself to enamel.

Thirty years later, I'm still at it. I've taken several enamel and goldsmithing workshops
to refine techniques, but the many hours of experimentation have been the key to developing
the high quality enamels I've longed for all along.


		My Background
	I first enameled as a child, sifting colors onto pennies and assorted stamped shapes, and firing them in a small electric hot plate kiln. That hobby lasted for about a month; I was much more interested in sports. I loved running and jumping, competing, and playing with any kind of ball. My only other early art memory was when I attempted to teach myself to paint with oils. Working from a photo, I painted a portrait of my younger sister. My brother laughed at it, my sister cried, and my mother suggested that maybe I should put the paints away and do something else. In high school, for my part time job, I helped out in my father's electronic instrument business. I worked in our basement, bending and soldering the tiny wires of thermocouples, as I listened to rock and roll music. My mother complained that he was spoiling me; I would never want to have a REAL JOB! It wasn't until I graduated from college (B.A. Psychology) that I renewed my interest \| in art. Pulling my hobbies from a closet in my parents' basement, I began enameling again because I didn't know what else to do with my life. It took little skill to fire a piece and watch beautiful colors emerge. And it was FUN! At this very impressionable stage of my career, I went to a local craft show and saw the beautiful cloisonné jewelry of Gael and Howard Silverblatt. I was blown away. Never had I imagined that the same glass powders that I was playing with could be made into something so exquisite. I decided that I wanted to make a cloisonné enamel piece as beautiful as what I saw at that show. I became committed to teach myself to enamel. Thirty years later, I'm still at it. I've taken several enamel and goldsmithing workshops to refine techniques, but the many hours of experimentation have been the key to developing the high quality enamels I've longed for all along.