**Presenting the new book:**
**Fire · Colour · Light**
**On Enamelling and Becoming**

*Written in English.*

I am absolutely thrilled to announce my first book, Fire · Colour · Light - On Enamelling and Becoming, which was just released on the 15th of August 2026.

While the book is, on the surface, all about enamelling and my own perspective on this ancient craft technique, it is at its core about the interweaving of a creative practice, nature and craftsmanship. It is also not really mine, but a collective effort, bilingual in German and English, with essays by wonderful guest contributors complemented by my own musings about my work. Mostly, the book is a visual journey of carefully composed images, showing both my process in the studio and of my finished pieces, painting a multi-layered picture of an art practice situated somewhere between experience, reflection and sensory perception.

As a little glimpse into its colourful world, I’d love to share Fire · Colour · Light’s preface (slightly edited) and a few snapshots of its contens with you below.

How does a technique become a practice?

How does a practice become an attitude?

And how does an attitude become a world of its own?

The first time I enamelled, I immediately felt that spark, that tingle – something exciting and alive in the luminosity of those colours that touched me deeply. The colours seemed to be speaking to me. They drew me into a world of iridescence that only grows more fascinating to me with time.

I enamelled, learnt, experimented, immersed myself. I lived with my art, never set it aside, and eventually made a living from it. Little by little, I began to take a keen interest in the creative process itself – no longer just in the finished objects. What happens when something is created out of nothing? What flows where? Who speaks to whom? How much do I determine, and how much is already inherent in the material’s own properties? And what comes from somewhere else entirely? The creative process is difficult to grasp and even harder to put into words. It always retains something mysterious.

When I began to understand the creative process as something greater, something overarching, the words to describe it suddenly found me. And they had to be shared with the world. I organise my thoughts best when I write, and so I realised just how much was waiting to be told through me. Thus, this book begins with enamelling and then branches out like mycelium into other areas. Here, the common thread of the art of enamelling is woven through other themes in my life to form a dense web: colour, craftsmanship and artmaking, art history, nature, the cyclical, mythology, alchemy, philosophy and magic.

There were others I knew who also had something to say on the subject. I could hardly believe my luck when I asked Sabine Wilp, Andreas Huth, Uli Haass and Hubert Sowa each to contribute to this book, and they all agreed! The vast majority of the photographs (including those in this blog entry) are by Dominik Schreiner, who accompanied this project attentively over many months. Each of these individuals is deeply rooted in their respective field and enriches the book in their own unique way. But beyond their professional expertise, it was a great pleasure to work with such remarkable, warm-hearted people. The result is a collection of diverse perspectives that shed light on various aspects of enamelling. The project grew by itself and took on a life of its own.

Fellow jewellery maker, business partner and brainstormer, toolmaker, silversmith, and graphic designer Alvaro-Luca Ellwart wove all these threads together into the book you are holding. Hardly anyone else has accompanied my thinking and work on so many levels as he has over the years – as a friend and my husband.

Together, we founded Atelier NONNE 11 in Bamberg in 2021 and our own imprint, NONNE 11 dreiviertel publishers, in 2026.

Originally, this book was just intended to accompany the exhibition Fire · Colour · Light: Enamelled Worlds by Nora Kovats. Yet, like so much else in this project, it soon began to develop a life of its own. It did not become a traditional exhibition catalogue – and yet it is closely linked to this exhibition, which will be on display from July to November 2026 as an intervention in the Gemäldegalerie of Bamberg’s Historical Museum.

As the book was due to be published during the exhibition itself, we suddenly found ourselves with an unplanned mission this past January: the entire publication – from the initial concept to the print-ready PDF – was produced in just six months, and financed largely from our own resources.

What is this book not? Although I describe my working process in detail, this is not a manual for enamelling, nor a technical step-by-step guide. Rather, it is about what goes beyond any instruction manual: intuition, engagement with the material, and the dialogue that develops during the creative process. I want to inspire other artists to find their own voice, whether through enamelling or other artmaking processes.

This book is not intended to provide a comprehensive overview of my work. After fifteen years of enamelling, I feel as though I have only just begun – that is how inexhaustible this subject seems to me. The publication is neither intended to be a complete catalogue raisonné, nor an archive or a definitive inventory. I am saving that for later, too much is still in the making.

Fire · Colour · Light tells a story through images. It is conceived as a meandering tapestry in which thoughts, sketches and finished works are shown side by side and in dialogue. Although the individual essays, interspersed with photo spreads, build on one another, this book does not need to be read from start to finish. It can be browsed, opened at random and rediscovered time and again. Close-up photographs of my workbench, the studio and various pieces open up new perspectives and continually invite the reader to linger and delve deeper.

What do I want for this book? I hope it will open a door for people, revealing the vital necessity of their own creative work. Creating something from one’s own mind and with one’s own hands is so ancient, so human, and so healing. For me, the processes of enamelling, watercolour painting and time spent in nature embody this joyful affirmation of life. For others, it may be yet another facet of that great creative force inherent in all things.

We can all sense how the world is changing at the moment. We are moving into an era – at least, that is my belief – that seeks to monopolise, indeed, deliberately attack, our attention, our consciousness and our imagination. This makes it all the more important, in my view, to nurture and cultivate precisely these abilities. Creative expression offers us a sense of empowerment and opportunities for action. It strengthens our agency, opens up connections to other people and, at the same time, to something otherworldly. Whether we decorate our home with flowers, craft a gift for someone, make up a spontaneous song or create art – is it not this creative power within us that gives life its meaning? This power wants to be lived, shared and experienced together.

This book is an invitation: join me on this creative journey. Walk with me a while.

It is difficult to put some of these concepts and feelings into words. Yet this book – somewhere between meticulous research, worldview and intuition – dares to try.

I am convinced that creativity, awe, wonder and enthusiasm can be learned and cultivated. The seed is already buried inside us.

I promise.

Get the book

A small note about shipping:
If you cannot find your shipping option, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email. With packaging laws and tarriffs being changed in such a way that small businesses cannot cope anymore, I have removed some countries as default shipping options for now.