This is a follow-up blog explaining why I, Sandra Thurlow, have been so interested in Serge Nekrassoff and his metal craft.

After returning from Travis Air Force Base in California in 1965, we built a house on Edgewood Drive in Stuart.

Knowing that I did not think caring for one little girl was enough to occupy my days, Tom purchased a kiln and many enameling supplies that were in a Rio estate liquidation.

Although, I knew nothing about copper enameling I thought I could learn. I bought “how-to” books and purchased additional supplies from art supply catalogues.

My earliest creation was prompted by a call of the Episcopal Church Women of St. Mary’s Church for “religious art.” I enlisted my friend Robby Robinson to cut a piece of Masonite in the shape of a stained glass window. I painted it black and glued enameled copper pieces on it.

After cleaning the copper, it is sprayed with gum arabic and dusted with enamel (that is really powered glass.)  To fire your item, you open a roaring hot kiln and place your piece or in the case of mosaics—pieces inside. You wear an asbestos glove and use a special long forked instrument with a heat shield on its handle. You close the kiln door and use your judgement about the time you leave your piece or pieces in side. It is a dangerous balancing act. It is easy to over-fire and lose your work. You have to have fire-proof ceramic slabs where you can place your red hot items when you remove them from the kiln.

I longed to learn enameling from Serge Nekrassoff. One day when I ran into Serge and Mary Nekrassoff in a grocery store, I blurted out something about wanting to “apprentice.”  I think that was the wrong word to use. Serge seemed horrified.

I was on my own with copper enameling. I experimented and played around. I used a mallet to shape shallow bowls but flat pieces were much easier. Bowls had to be “counter enameled” meaning that the bottom as well as the top had to be enameled. This was very tricky.

Through the years I made dozens of bridge prizes and gifts of copper enamel, I made Christmas tree ornaments for my Sunday school children .

On a trip abroad we met a man who owned a manufacturing plant in Findlay Ohio. After we got home he sent me a packet of large copper sheets. It was right after the Earth had been photographed from Apollo 17. I had one of the big sheets cut into pieces that would fit into my kiln and made a large plaque and called it “Earth Colors From Space.” It hung in our living room for a few years.

Recently, I was in the home of Chuck Schad who was Tom Thurlow’s friend from Liverpool, NY. He and his wife, Audrey, moved to Stuart, after he was an usher in our wedding and met Tom’s brother-in-law, Dale Hudson, who asked if he wanted to work for what is now Seacoast Bank. I happened to look on the wall and saw a plate I gave when they repeated their wedding vows on their 25th Anniversary.

Chuck Schad poses next to the copper enameled plate given 41 years ago.

SO THIS EXPLAINS THE THURLOW INTEREST IN COPPER ENAMELING.