Chinese Cloisonné is
well-known worldwide. When people talk about Chinese cloisonne technique, most
of them will link it to beautiful decorations or tableware, such as vases,
bowls, tea cups. Not many know that there is a particular cloisonné technique
specially applied to Chinese jewelry called Beijing enamel or silver enamel.
Traditional Chinese Jewelry : Beijing Enamel Hairpin
Traditional Chinese Jewelry : Beijing Enamel Bracelet
It is said the Beijing enamel(silver enamel) technique was
first developed to replace a Chinese jewelry technique called Tian-tsui (点翠), which is a style of Chinese art featuring kingfisher
feathers in making jewelry. It is a technique that is luxury, stunning, but
very crucial, as the kingfisher feathers are painstakingly cut and glued onto
gilt silver to achieve cloisonné effect. The rival blue color was difficult to
have from normal enamel skills, but the
number of kingfishers was very limited . That was how Beijing enamel was
developed to imitate the Tian-tsui effect and to fulfill people’s desire to
beautiful blue jewelry.
Beijing enamel is
also called Silver Enamel because only silver can be used as the material for
making vessel, which is usually constructed by hammering and stretching
soldered pieces of silver into the required shape. The blue enamel paste (made
from bronze) will be filled into
cloisonné compartments which are made from silver wire attached on the
vessel. The enamel is applied and refilling each time after cloisonné shrinking
with the vessel on fire. This procedure needs to be repeated for 4 or 5 times
to make sure that the surface of the vessel is smooth.
Making Beijing Enamel Vase
The blue color of Beijing enamel is very vivid and looks
like water painting on semi-transparent glasses. The surface of enamel reflects
the light in the air and bring life to the jewelry. That is why I prefer to
call it “burning blue” instead of Beijing enamel.
Find your burning blue jewelry collection by clicking the photo below.