Sarah Perkins
Metal enameller
Springfield, MO, USA
A commitment to enamel
- Sarah specialises in enamelling vessels and jewellery
- She spends her time hiking and observing plant life for inspiration
- She co-hosts an annual enamellers' residency in North Carolina to promote the craft
Sarah Perkins' lifelong practice of enamelling began with one jewellery class she took in high school. She studied at San Diego State University under Arline Fisch, who wrote the seminal book on textile techniques in metal, followed by graduate studies with Richard Mawdsley and Brent Kington in Illinois. Later, Sarah taught for over two decades in the USA and abroad, which provided her with the rare privilege of total creative freedom. “I have never taken a commission I did not want,” she says. Increasingly, Sarah has embraced how the natural world drives everything she makes, from a cloisonné vessel made after rafting the Grand Canyon, to earrings inspired by the tops of a Galiella rufa or hairy rubber cup mushrooms. Her work can be found in the V&A and the Metal Museum in Memphis.
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
Enamel is slow and unforgiving. Every layer must be fired, which creates an irreversibility that forces a commitment I find grounding. The surface can look almost watercoloured, opaque or heavily textured, when in reality it is glass, fused to metal through a painstaking process.
Finishing a piece is easy, the real challenge is finding variety in the workload. I find myself needing projects I can dig into over months, and smaller pieces I can finish within a week. Although I have enjoyed focusing on jewellery making, I feel ready to tackle vessels again.
In the mid-1990s, enamelling in the USA lacked the technical depth it holds today. While its resurgence is exciting to watch, I worry about its long-term preservation. Granulation disappeared for so long that nobody remembered how to do it, and people had to reinvent it from scratch. There is always a risk that knowledge disappears.
Nobody wants to talk endlessly about work unless the other person is equally invested. When they are, it is a joy. For years, I have been collaborating with my close friend Charles Radtke, a cabinetmaker. I make enamelled panels that feature on his cabinets. I send him what I am working on via text, he sends back wood samples, then the real conversation begins.
Sarah Perkins
Metal enameller
Springfield, MO, USA
ADDRESS
Address upon request, Springfield, MO, USA
AVAILABILITY
By appointment only
LANGUAGES
English
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