[Jewelry making - Article 00867] - [Orchid] Enamelling Cracks Trouble

[Lisa Gallagher]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

Hello,

    I just recently starting doing some enamelling again, I finally have
    my own kiln (thanks for everyone's help with that search, by the
    way!). I created a few pieces in PMC & then put enamel on them, and
    for the most part everything is going well, going as expected, but
    this one piece really has me stumped. It seemed to be just fine, and
    I was quite pleased with the results, and then suddenly a couple
    days later I noticed some cracks in the enamel & I can't seem to get
    rid of them. At first, I thought it was because I was cleaning up the
    edge with a burr & it slipped, so maybe I smacked it. I hadn't
    noticed the cracks before that, but they may have been there. I
    figured I'd just re-fire it & the cracks would go away. I refired
    it, and they came back, maybe even a little differently. I tried
    adding another layer of enamel & firing it, but they were still
    there. I tried another, but it seemed the top layer was OK & then the
    cracks were still there below. I tried once more, firing it longer so
    that hopefully it would all blend together, but the cracks just keep
    getting worse. It's a pretty thick piece of metal, about 1.6mm thick
    (although with a stamped pattern impressed into it), and overall the
    enamel isn't thicker than that, so it seems hard to believe that the
    enamel would be too thick. Especially since when they first
    appeared, there was even less enamel on it (wet packed into the stamp
    impressions, then just two layers dusted on top). Here is a link to
    a photo of it when I first saw the cracks: 

    http://www.lisagallagher.com/GenPics/2070508.jpg. 

    I could take another of how it is now, too, if that would help. They
    are really obvious, worse than in the photo, you can feel them when
    you run your finger over it. Maybe I need to file it down, try to
    remove as much of it as possible & then start over. I've just never
    had this happen, so I don't know the best way to fix it. Or, for that
    matter, why it happened & how to prevent it from happening again! 

Thanks!

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher
www.lisagallagher.com
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________