How was it made? Champlevé enamelling | V&A

Between the years 1100 – 1250, specialist metalworkers flourished in the areas around Cologne (Germany), Liège (Belgium) and Limoges (France). They supplied monasteries and churches with vessels essential for the rituals of the church, objects such as chalices, crosses, candlesticks, altarpieces and shrines.

The technique of enamelling used intense heat to fuse glass onto a prepared metal surface, allowing the metalworker to create brightly coloured images. Medieval enamellers used several different techniques but champlevé enamelling was one of the most common. The word champlevé means literally 'raised fields', referring to the way that beds were dug out of a copper plate to receive the powdered enamel.

Watch as a small plaque based on a detail from a reliquary chest made around 1180 in Limoges is recreated. Whilst the basic process remains the same, medieval enamellers used kilns fuelled with charcoal and relied on their judgement when firing the enamel plaques.

Process for champlevé enamelling
Medieval casket: 00:00
Cutting and marking the copper: 00:43
Medieval bow drill: 01:16
Embedding into wax: 01:28
Carving troughs: 01:43
Making enamel: 01:56
Applying enamel with a goose quill: 02:22
Firing process: 02:38
Polishing with carborundum and cleaning the surface: 03:14
Wrigglework and adding decoration: 03:32
Final enamelled plaque: 03:45

Find out more about our medieval collection: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/med...

Discover more about enamels: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ena...