This fall, our morgan mare Ms. Tiffany died at age 27. Tiffany had an unfortunate condition common to her breed called cushings, which is a body regulatory disorder that operates sort of like diabetes – in this case it effects the metabolism, temperature regulation and coat growth. Tiffany has been an important part of my life for some time, so I made 3 enameled pendants as Christmas gifts for the people that were closest to her. I wanted each pendant to be the same image, but with a different effect that I figured would suit each wearer’s taste. Each pendant is a 2″ copper disc, which has been etched with an image of Tiffany in profile. I also etched a smaller circle around the outside of each disc. Then, when it came time to enamel, I applied an opaque black enamel to the backs as counter-enamel, and wet packed black enamel into the etched image. Then I covered the entire face with a transparent enamel, and traced around the image with either a second coating of transparent enamel or an opaque color. For the green pendant it was transparent in the middle, with a little blue around the outside, the purple is simply a second coating of transparent violet (though it came out more maroon than I had hoped) and the blue is two coats of transparent cobalt. I wanted to partially obscure the image, but make sure it was still clearly a horse. In this way it would appear ethereal and ghost like. I think they do her justice, and the recipients of the gifts really appreciated them.
