Marilyn Druin

Marilyn Druin taught herself the art of enameled jewelry in the 1960s while studying art education. Enameling consists of heating glass to liquid form and creating different forms and colors on a metal surface. The hot glass eventually cools and hardens into either a transparent, translucent, or opaque material. When Druin started enameling, she used the cloisonné technique, a process of manipulating silver or gold wire to form compartments that hold the liquid glass in place as it cools. Druin eventually incorporated a technique called basse-taille, French for “low-cut,” in which the surface of the metal is engraved before the glass is applied over it. In the 1970s, when most enamelers were creating figurative jewelry, Druin set herself apart with her abstract designs. In the 1980s and 1990s she founded the North East Enamel Guild and became a trustee of the International Enamelist Society.