Learn to Enamel
Online
in my new virtual studio and classroom

below is a placeholder for  Ricky's Welcome video

Join me on an 8-Week
Creative Enamel Adventure!
It's not an online video class.
It's a small group "mentoring" experience.

Apply Today

Here's a video peek into the virtual classroom.

A big question: How do I move "beyond technique"?

I share my techniques from the  "inside-out"

Discover and Explore Your  Enamel Vision and Voice.

This has been the most challenging part of my enameling career.
I used to...

• try be "perfect".
• struggle to allow myself time to play.
  
•  think that there was a "right answer".
  
• want someone to show me the "right way".
•  believe that I didn't have a meaningful "story" to tell.
• collect more techniques so that I would "improve".
  
• feel like I must always be making something that I "liked".
• stay safely in my comfort zone.
• be unaware of WHY I wanted to create.

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
—CARL JUNG

Here is what I've learned as I've searched for
MY Artistic Enamel Vision and Voice:

• A connection with myself, to others, and to my world empowers me to know what I want to say.
  
• Creativity is the result of my questions, not someone else's answers.
  
• Asking technique questions does not often lead me to artistic answers.
  
• Becoming fluent (my skills and visual imagery) enables me to speak from my heart instead of my head.
  
• Developing fluency is a process that requires practice, focus, and commitment.
  
• Knowing WHY I care inspires me to persevere in hard times.
  
• I  must trust myself.
  
• This is a journey, not a destination. I am in a process of changing myself as I change what I create.

It's difficult to connect
when you are the  audience.

Which do you think is more helpful?
1. Watch and listen to me tell you how to do it and then you try to follow my directions.
or
2. Watch, listen, do it, and then have a "live" conversation about it ?

What were your challenges?
What were your questions?
What did you discover?
How might you do it next time?

Connecting to others who are facing similar challenges
helps you feel connected to yourself.

"I am not here to "teach you MY successes".
I am here to support your journey towards YOUR process of discovery.

I share what I know and what I have learned.
I have no secrets.
But the most important thing that I share is
the WHY of my creating
and
the HOW of my journey.
Not the WHAT.

The process of learning comes from INSIDE.
This is where your creativity lies.
It is where you will find your artistic vision and voice.

I cannot give it to you.
YOU have to do the work!

My classes and programs are not for everyone. It depends what you want.

Many craft classes take this approach:

The instructor...

• tries to answer all of your questions
  
• shows you how to use your tools
• shares what they know about the materials
• passes along their tips and tricks
• helps you find the "right way" to do it
• provides a range of projects for you to make
  
• shows you a better way
• helps you make something that you will like

When you return to your studio, you try to remember what you did so that you can
make something that you like once again.

I take a different approach:

I encourage you to...

• explore many questions to help you discover possible answers
• explore your relationship with your tools
• play with your materials to see what they can do
• think about "what it depends on" so that you can solver problems on your own
• understand the science so you follow principles and not rules
• develop technical and creative skills to empower you to make YOUR artwork

When you return to your studio, you are not afraid to play and experiment to discover what you like.
You don't feel afraid of failing because you understand how to teach yourself to learn, improve, and create.

Should I study with Ricky Frank?
Yes or No?

There is not a right way.
But different approaches get you different results.
What do YOU want?

Yes,
Ricky's classes are for you if....

• you want to explore your creative process
  
• you want to learn something about yourself
• your are open to change and re-invention
• you are willing to try to "play" and "experiment"
• you can allow yourself to risk failing
• you want to discover your inner child through enameling
• you can accept some chaos and uncertainty
• you want to make unique and personal enamel imagery
  

No,
Ricky's classes are NOT for you if....

• you want a teacher to give you all of the answers to your questions
• you believe that you need the right answers and right ways to do something
• you need to make something that you like in order to feel successful
• you are not willing to practice in order to improve your skills
• you need to feel that can get it "now"
• you just want the techniques
• you get too frustrated if you don't know where the piece is going
  
• you want to make enamel art that looks like the art of other enamel artists

 Who?

Choose the Program that's right for you.

The "Beginner" Program

• you have some experience with enamel
•  your skills and knowledge of enamel colors is limited
  
• you struggle to make anything that you like
  
• you are ready to take the next step in your enamel education
  
• you want some "how-to" guidance
• you want to discover your "inner artist"
• you are open to making changes
• you want more from your enameling, but don't know what that is

The "Explorer" Program

• you have taken some workshops and have some experience and skills
• you have some skill muscle-memory and are familiar with your enamel colors
• you've made some pieces that you love
• you are ready to move to the next level but might feel stuck
• you are able to learn in workshops but when you are alone in your studio you don't know what to do
  
• you believe that you have something to say but don't know how to do this with enamel
  

Here is what some of my students are saying...

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Ricky, although I had been enameling several years my work did not take direction and focus until I came to Atlanta and took a class from you.  The things  I learned in those three days were profound and was exactly what I needed to take my work to another level.  

Gina Eubanks

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\When I first started watching your videos, I kept thinking why is he asking "why" all the time?  Well, you have me hooked.  I'm finding myself thinking about "why and why not" all the time now, and all the possibilities that asking that leads to

Margaret Garza

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As Simon Sinek covers in his book, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action, knowing your "why" is critically important in life. It is this focus that Ricky Frank employs to help artists/enamelists understand why they are doing something. He then guides students to build on their "why" as they execute their "what" (jewelry/vessel/wall piece) and "how" (enamel & metal techniques).

Cullen Hackler

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I like that you have taken time before presenting the technical aspects of enameling, to discuss the mental/emotional landscape of the artistic process.  I have taken other art classes, and have never had another teacher walk me through this.  That, in itself, is just priceless to me.

Mary Caldwell

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He talks about the process of learning, the process of mastery, the process of letting the artist inside you "emerge."  He's a mentor of the best kind.  He teaches, but isn't pedantic about it.  His approach is  "Here's what I know, what I do and how I do it, but it was a process for me and it'll be a process for you."    He teaches you how to answer your own questions.  Every lesson isn't just instructional, it's inspiring, liberating and empowering.  I'm an engineer, not an artist, and, being me, I started out looking for answers, knowledge, details, details, how-to, how-to.  Ricky has given me mountains of that, but probably the most valuable thing I've gained is that now when I sit down at my bench I'm not worried about producing something "good," or the value of my time or the value of my materials or whether I'm meeting some goal.
I'm in the process of becoming an enamelist and Ricky brilliantly enables that process.

Trish Morman

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My students' enamels are unique, personal, and fun!
Their pieces that come from the heart.

Learn Online

My "Virtual Studio Classroom" takes advantage of modern technology
to help you feel like you are right in the studio with me.
I've combined...

• Interactive Zoom meetings
• Wireless Camera streams from anywhere in the studio
  
• A private online community and workbook for sharing and critique
  
• A weekly "Office Hours" meeting to help answer your questions
  

Yes, you can learn, see live demos, and feel engaged, challenged, and connected
from the comfort and safety of your own studio!

How?

Zoom Connections:
Engage and Connect with Questions, Demonstrations, and Exercises.
Make new friends and inspire each other.

Course Lessons: Technique and Artistic
A combination of  Video, Articles, and Exercises

Group Critiques & Discussion
Use our space to share, connect, challenge,
 inspire. and question.

My WHY

"I am fascinated with how light passes through our world; sunlight through the trees in the forest, light behind the clouds in the sky, and light bouncing off the surface of the ocean or lake, or through the various large and small waterfalls of a stream or river. I feel a sense of awe when I experience these phenomena. I spent 8 weeks each summer from the age of 10-15 at a YMCA camp in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The natural beauty that surrounded me each day left an impression that still resonates within.
Now my family prefers the beach to the mountains. I love both!

Enamel seems like a perfect media for me: I can capture the light through the layers, and the combination of art and science plays perfectly into the different parts of my experience. It's not just problem-solving; it's creativity and expression.
It's my story, expressed in enamel, that I choose to share. I work to develop my skills, both technical and aesthetic, so that I can share my sense of "awe" with others as I use my enamel vocabulary to sing my enamel song to share my enamel vision.

Some of my enamel jewelry from over 47 years
What do you think my questions were?
What was I trying to explore?
Why did I care?
What did I need to "teach myself" in order to make these pieces?