Miniature Masterworks: Diane Echnoz Almeyda

May 2, 2017

Diane Echnoz Almeyda is an enamelist, jeweler, and metalsmith working in 1:12, 1:24, and 1:48 scale. In 1998, she attended a workshop hosted by a master jeweler from the former Soviet Union in plique-à-jour enameling and was enamored: “I took the class and I knew… like a duck takes to water… that was what I wanted to do,” she said. Plique-à-jour (meaning “light of day”) applies ground and mixed glass to silver or gold frameworks with no backing so light shines through the transparent or translucent final product. The 6^th century Byzantine technique was popular with Art Nouveau craftsman Rene Lalique, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Peter Carl Fabergé.

Almeyda traveled all over the world to absorb as much as she could about this lost technique. Now, in additional to making fine-scale miniature stained glass windows, lamps, panels, vessels, and objects d’art, she shares the art form with others in classes, workshops, and private lessons.

Diane Echnoz Almeyda is one of over sixty artists participating in Miniature Masterworks, September 15-17, 2017.