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| Linda Darty, Mr. Carpenter & Me |
I've always enjoyed working with glass but sometimes feel the need to expand my horizons, I call them "growing pains", not that I don't like to make glass beads, I just need to mix it up a little and try something new. I started enameling almost a year ago, quite by accident really, I needed to order more enamels and saw that they offered a beginning class, so, I signed up!
It was a 2-day class offered at Thompson Enamels, lead in part by the man that invented the entire process 75 years ago. His name is Woodrow Carpenter, affectionately referred to as Mr. Carpenter, and yes, he'll be 95 next month. A truly amazing man that has pioneered the techniques and products that enamelists have used for the past 75 years. He is loved and respected by all that know him, especially his employees. He is still an intricate part of the day to day going on's at Thompson Enamels. Anyway, Mr. Carpenter taught the first half of the class before he left to go fill orders in the warehouse, and at lunch I made a point to seek him out and ask him his "story". He started out as an enamelist almost 80 years ago when he worked at a company in Cincinnati that coated cast iron and iron stoves with enamel. He told me he didn't like the boring colors of white and speckled blue that he had to use everyday, so he started making his own colors in his basement. He hand crafted a vase and used his own enamels to color it, entered it in the Indiana State Fair and blew the competition away. He's so sweet, he's still quite proud when he recounts what happened that day! There was a representative of teh American Craft Council there that day that asked him if he could make more, that he wanted to place an order with him...so the rest is history.
Mr. Carpenter still runs the business, pioneers all the techniques and his wife helps out and manages the museum that's attached to their building, a collection of enameled objects from all over the world. He reminds me of my late Grandpa Shipley, if there was a tool he needed that wasn't available, he made it himself! We always joked that Grandpa Shipley would have been a wealthy man if patented half the ideas he came up with and made. Mr. Carpenter's the same way, only he sells them in his business!
Linda Darty, along with several other accomplished enamelists, were teaching a week's worth of classes there. The classes had been full for months when I found out but Mr.Carpenter acquired a spot for me ha, ha! Linda Darty is an awesome talent, full of knowledge and so eager to share everything with her students. The first day we went over techniques and watched demo's, the second day we applied those techniques and practiced, practiced, practiced, under
the guidance of Abigail her TA. I immediately fell in love with enameling. I have found my own style that is more organic then deliberate, I have mastered painting and watercolors too. I highly recommend her class if you ever have the opportunity to take one, she is phenomenal. I also met some great people, professionals that do large pieces and artists that do small paintings. Ok, here are some pictures. I wanted to share one of Linda and Mr. Carpenter. Enjoy!!
