As the saying goes, “Every cloud has a silver lining…” and that is what I have created with this cloud necklace. It has a sterling silver frame around the enamel piece. The cloud is made of several layers of white enamel kiln fired on copper, then etched to give it some tooth for me to draw with graphite pencil and lay in a blue wash of acrylic enamel. A thin layer of clear enamel is sprinkled over the top and torch fired to a sugar finish. The firing also sets the graphite into the base enamel and the acrylic enamel fired to retain it’s painterly style.
So where did this saying come from? John Milton coined the phrase ‘silver lining’ in Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634
I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were
To keep my life and honour unassailed.
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.
It was also used during victorian era as a common quote in literature. I am betting my cloud does have a silver lining…
