A clean air gem for Jewel Day 2015: Manon Doyle

Manon Doyle, in her Scottsdale, Arizona studio.

Metalsmith and jewelry maker Manon Doyle regularly reinvents her artistic self. Her first love was painting. Then she worked in glass mosaics for a while, sometimes in three dimensions, like a sculptor. When she was ready to move on from mosaics, she chose enamel work. To learn enameling basics, she attended workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. Because enamel is frequently applied to metal to make jewelry, it led Manon to her current art practice, metalsmithing.

Health Hazards of Crafting/Art Making

Left – Large scale mascot of Brutus Buckeye of Ohio State. Right – Rutilated Quartz Stone in Sterling Silver Ring. Rutile is a mineral composed of mainly titanium dioxide.

Each creative change brought awareness of the health hazards associated with the media and techniques she used. For example, her glass mosaic of Ohio State’s mascot required each glass tessera to be ground smooth; no sharp edges allowed. The resulting dust in her studio reminded Manon that a main ingredient of glass is silica — not a good substance to inhale.

Enamel work requires a kiln or torch to soften glass beads so they flow. Metal oxides used as coloring agents in the beads may be released by the heat as fumes – also not good to inhale.

Manon loves to use sterling silver to create the jewelry that occupies her studio time. She knew that soldering silver had respiratory risks. So she bought a device promoted as a solder smoke eater. Manon didn’t know the device was not as effective as one might hope. (See graphic below.)

Sentry Air meets Manon via Deryn

In Deryn Mentock’s Something Sublime blog, Manon read about Deryn’s quest for clean, safe air to breathe when she soldered. Deryn uses a Winged Sentry Model 200.
Manon decided to give us a call.

Very pleased Manon Doyle is our Jewel Day 2015 artist

We know artists are frequently so ardent about the creative processes that they overlook their own needs. Sentry Air loves Manon’s respect for her lungs and her desire to protect them. Manon ordered a stainless steel Benchtop Solder Fume Extractor for her studio. She said our video that shows how the unit pulls solder smoke away from the user impressed her.