Helen Calnan is an Australian enameller of quite some note, having trained both locally and internationally to persue her craft. She did reside in Sydney some time ago but I am not able to confirm a current locality. I do see that she was at one time on the National Enamel Exhibition committee, overseeing exhibitions such as the "Fire In The Heart" National Enamel Exhibition which was held at the Centre For Contemporary Art (Craftspace Gallery) in Sydney, 1997.
Many of her enamelled jewellery pieces can be found offered online but larger pieces such as this very skillfully crafted large Copper based enamel work is quite difficult to find.
HEATHER CALNAN - Studio Enamel On Copper Piece
Large Dish: 10 Inch (260mm) diameter
Base material: Copper (2.5mm thick!)
Enamel work to both the underside and top
Circa 1980's ~ 1990's (estimated based on when she began her enamelled creations and an estimation of when we obtained this piece - it was a long time ago!)
Pattern: Title of this contemporary design is unknown. Actually when we first saw this dish we thought it was loosely based on Aboriginal designs but once you look deeper into the design, that's not really the case. Perhaps some Aboriginal design inspiration originally, we just don't know.
Moss Green coloured base enamel work to the topside with sprays of White and an ocean teal Blue to the underside.
Interestingly, some of the metal showing through on the topside actually appears to be Gold. We do know that this enamel artist did work with Gold inlay in some of her other pieces, she liked to explore the fusion of metals and enamel artwork.
The outer rim of the dish is raised but only to 10mm, this is not a deep dish. The rim has been left as raw copper, giving a nice "Coppery-golden glow" to the rim
The only identification on this piece is a Gold metallic sticker on the underside.
Being made of reasonably thick Copper, this dish is heavy at 850g - something to take into account when putting the dish on display. Of course, like us, if you prefer to actually use your "works of art" then this dish will be perfectly at home on the dinning table as well. It is likely to draw comments of admiration, it did for us! "Wow! where did you get that from?" was pretty typical.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
CLEAN
NO base metal damage at all
NO scratching at all
NO damage to the enamelled artwork topside or the underneath "Blue wash"
