Cloisonné Plaque

A metalsmith has this photograph on the bench as the only drawing for a cloisonné plaque. Fine gold wires are bent into cells that follow the large shapes of the sitter and the room — jaw, collar, sleeves, a doorway — then each cell is filled with vitreous enamel, fired, and stoned flat. The woman is still that woman: same face, hair, clothes, and stance, built from enamel, not from a decorative flower motif. Colours track the original garments. A few cells show tiny pits from the kiln. The plaque is small, slightly convex, with a plain metal rim. Photograph it straight-on on dark cloth. Not a leaded chapel window, not furnace-blown glass, not a painted miniature under resin.