Micro Mosaic and Vitreous Enamel Workshops in Italy

I teach three intensive workshops in the crafts I have spent my working life on: Roman micro mosaic, cloisonné enamel, and miniature painting on enamel. All of them run near Milan, in Italian and English, in groups small enough that I can sit down beside every person. Materials, tools and kiln time are included, and no previous experience is required.

Since 2012 I have taught more than 400 students from over 20 countries, at the Galdus goldsmithing academy, at IED in Milan, and at Hobbyland, where these courses are held. These are working sessions: you spend the days at a bench with a kiln, a torch and your own hands.

Upcoming dates

Enamel miniature painting (3 days)

Paint a detailed miniature on an enameled copper base, from preparing the metal and transferring the drawing to firing the piece without burning it. No experience needed, and you take your miniature home.

• 24 to 26 March 2027 – Enamel miniature painting – 3 days, 22 hours – €595 – Hobbyland, Legnano (Milan). Book your place.

• 7 to 9 April 2027 – Enamel miniature painting – 3 days, 22 hours – €595 – Hobbyland, Legnano (Milan). Book your place.

Cloisonné Workshop (4 days)

Starting from a copper base, apply silver leaf, then shape and place wires to create your personalized drawing. Work wet packing with opaque and transparent enamels, and finish your own piece.

• 20 to 23 April 2027 – Cloisonné Workshop – 4 days, 30 hours – €795 – Hobbyland, Legnano (Milan). Book your place.

Micro Mosaic Workshop (5 days)

Start from the raw materials. Grind Roman stucco, pull and cut the glass filati into sub-millimeter tesserae, and set your first micromosaic jewel.

• 1 to 5 March 2027 – Micro Mosaic Workshop – 5 days, 38 hours — €995 — Hobbyland, Legnano (Milan). Book your place.

• 15 to 19 March 2027 — Micro Mosaic Workshop — 5 days, 38 hours — €995 — Hobbyland, Legnano (Milan). Book your place.

Booking and payment are handled by Hobbyland, the place that hosts my courses, so the button will take you to their site. Prices include every material and tool you need. Courses are confirmed once they reach a minimum number of participants.

None of these dates work? Book a private vitreous enamel or micro mosaic workshop.

About the workshops

Enamel Miniature Painting

Miniature painting on enamel means painting with glass powder fine like flour, mixing it with oil, painting with a brush and a needle, and firing after every layer. It is the technique of seventeenth-century portrait miniatures.

Over three days, you’ll see the full method. Preparing the metal and laying the enamel base. Transferring your design. Mixing and managing colors, I will explain also how to master the skin tones. Building detail and shading layer by layer. Using mediums correctly. Understanding finishing flux, the key element for creating rings that will last for centuries. And firing without burning your work, which is the failure that discourages most self-taught painters.

What you'll learn:

• How to prepare the metal and lay the white enamel base you will paint on

• Transferring your drawing onto the enamel surface

• Mixing enamel colors and choosing the right painting medium

• Building an image in layers, firing between each one

• Blending colors and painting soft transitions, including skin tones

• Working the finest detail with brush and needle

• Firing the piece without burning it

You leave with one or two fired miniatures on an enameled copper base, and with a repeatable technique.

Cloisonné Workshop

In cloisonné, thin silver wires are bent into cells and each cell is filled with a different color of powdered glass, then fired until the glass fuses turning glossy.

Across four days you prepare a copper base, apply silver leaf so the transparent enamels glow, transfer the design, bend and place the silver wires, wash and prepare the enamel powders, fill the cells color by color, and fire at around 800 °C. We watch the firings together so you learn to read the surface rather than the clock. The last stage is leveling the surface.

What you'll learn:

• Preparing the copper base

• Applying silver leaf

• Transferring the design onto the base

• Shaping and forming silver wires to create the design

• Preparing and washing the enamel powders

• Cell-filling techniques and color application

• Firing the enamel in a kiln at 800°C

• Monitoring the different firing stages

• Grinding, finishing and polishing the jewelry

You leave with one finished piece, entirely made by you, and possibly a second if you work quickly.

Micro Mosaic Workshop

Roman micro mosaic builds an image out of glass tesserae often smaller than a millimeter, set into a linseed-oil stucco that stays workable for days. It was developed in Rome and guarded for centuries by a handful of workshops. Almost nobody teaches it.

Over five days you make the whole thing yourself, starting from raw material. You melt Venetian glass enamel at the torch and pull it into threads, round, rectangular, curved, and threads with a pattern running through them. You cut those threads into tesserae. You prepare Roman stucco. Then you set your tesserae into a jewelry base, packing them so tightly that the surface reads as a single painted image.Torch work is supervised one to one, because that is the part where a good habit or a bad one is formed in the first hour.

What you'll learn:

• What Roman micromosaic is, and where the technique comes from

• Preparing the linseed-oil binder

• Crushing and grinding Roman stucco into a fine powder

• Mixing the stucco to the right working consistency

• Choosing and using the right tools to lay the stucco in a bezel

• Pulling and cutting glass filati into minute tesserae

• Setting the tesserae one by one to build your design

• Finishing and cleaning a wearable micromosaic pendant

You leave with two to five finished pieces and with the threads you made yourself, so you can keep working at home. If you already have jewelry bases you would like to use, bring them: 18 to 25 mm across, at least 3.5 to 4 mm deep.

Who these workshops are for

Each workshop starts from the basics. They are suitable for beginners, but also for people who already know the technique and want to improve.

The only requirement is being sixteen or over.

Why learn with me

I started studying vitreous enamel at sixteen and have been making jewelry professionally since 2012. I learned Japanese cloisonné from Kyoko Iio, and the classic Limoges techniques of émail peint and grisaille from Jean Zamora. I came to Roman micro mosaic later, because I was fascinated by how the technique employs the same chemistry as vitreous enamel.

Since then I have taught more than 400 students from over 20 countries, written two technical tutorials on micro mosaic and on enameling on metal, and published articles on enamel history and equipment.

I teach because these techniques are genuinely at risk. There are very few people left who can do them, fewer who will explain how, and the knowledge does not survive in books alone.

How to reach the workshops

All group courses are held at Hobbyland, via P. Neglia 3, Legnano, in the province of Milan. The studio has the kiln, torch and all the material you need. It’s also possible to buy materials directly in the shop.

Arriving by car is easy. Malpensa airport is about 20 minutes away, which makes it the easiest arrival point if you are flying in.

Without a car, there are two good options.

• The one I recommend is to stay in Legnano, close to Hobbyland. You can find places within walking distance of Hobbyland.

• To reach Hobbyland on the first day, or If you would rather stay in Milan, there is a train every 30 minutes from Milano Porta Garibaldi to Legnano. From Legnano station, Hobbyland is about 4 km: take a taxi, or the H bus, getting off at the via Anna Frank stop.

Hobbyland has full directions, including bus timetables and walking maps on their own site.

Students regularly travel from across Europe and from the United States for these courses.

Frequently Asked Questions