About Us

For many years Jim & Cheryl Anne Swallow worked with Torch Fire Enamel Artist Joe Spencer. In 1999, Cheryl Anne met Joe while taking photographs during a Friday night Art Walk. The night was very windy and Joe's torch setup was blown over. Cheryl Anne went over to help pick it up. After everything was brought into Joe's Studio, he welcomed Cheryl Anne in for an enamel bead demonstration. She was very intrigued.

The following week she was assisting Joe in decorating his studio which gave him more time to teach. In return, Joe provided her private enamel bead-making classes, sharing with her his passion for enameling. A couple times a week they would get together in this arrangement. It was a win-win for both Joe and Cheryl Anne.

Several years later, in 2002, Cheryl Anne married professional photographer Jim Allen Swallow. Cheryl introduced Jim to Joe during one of her many visits. They quickly realized that Jim and Joe would be working together on many levels from creating art and videos to working on photographic images for educational literature. Jim and Joe spent many hours working on videos plus working out their ideas for new enamel tools and their fabrication process of those tools. They also enjoyed making sculptures and pushing the limits with new designs and colors. You just never knew what they would be up to. As Jim and Joe worked together, they created handy and innovated tools that are still used today.

For years, Cheryl Anne loved helping Joe make enamel mixes. In 2015, Joe gave his blessing to Cheryl Anne to kick things up some with the very color combinations that Joe had been using in his classes since 1970. She loved mixing and shifting all the beautiful colored enamel. She wasted no time and this is how Joe’s colors got a face lift which we called enamel blends.

Joe Spencer was known as a pioneer of torch-fired enamel. Joe enjoyed working with enamels for 51 years. He enjoyed sharing his passion for enamels through teaching classes and workshops. He taught many artists from all over the world during his long career. Joe loved encouraging enamels artists so much that he taught until one week before his journey to heaven in August 2016 at the young age of 91.

Joe left Jim and Cheryl Anne his lifetime work and asked that they carry on in sharing his passion for enamels. Jim and Cheryl Anne plan to continue to make tools and new enamel mixes which help artists produce stunning enamel art pieces. This is how (I Love Enamels.com) came about. Now you know the rest of the story as they say.

Jim created a website to honor Joe's work in the enameling world. If you would like to read more about Joe, please visit this special website: www.JoeSpencerArt.com