Cloisonne beads

Cloisonne ( Cloisonné) is an ancient technique of creating decorative arts such as vase and jewelry. This technique was developed in the middle east and later spread to China.


The making of Cloisonne is a multi-step process. First an artisan creates the shape of the object e.g. a bead from metal. Cloisonne wire is then solder on the bead to define partitions. the partitions act as a color separator. Powdered glass (Frit) is painted to the partitioned area and allow to dried. There after firing in oven melts the frit on the metal. This process might be repeated several times with various colour and transparencies to get the desired effect.

After this the bead is electroplated with a thin gold or silver film to prevent corrosion create the final bead.