Enamel (Jewelry)
Also called vitreous enamel, hard enamel
Enamel is coloured glass powder fused onto metal in a kiln, giving a hard, glossy surface in a colour metal cannot produce on its own. Jewelers use it for bands of colour, patterned inlays, and filled engraved lines.
In other words, it is ground glass fired onto a piece until it melts into a smooth coloured coating that will not rub off.
How enamel is applied
The metal is prepared with recessed cells or channels so the powder has somewhere to sit. Powder is packed in wet, dried, and fired at high heat until it melts and flows. Several firings may be needed to build the level up.
The surface is then ground flush and polished. Because each colour can behave differently in the kiln, enamel work is slow and hard to sample quickly.
- Cloisonne: colours separated by thin metal wires
- Champleve: colours sit in recesses cut into the metal
- Basse-taille: transparent enamel over an engraved surface
Getting the colour right in a render
Enamel is the part of a design most likely to change late, because a client picks a colour from a swatch and then wants to see it on the actual piece. Firing a test sample for each option is slow.
In a render we set the colour and gloss directly, so you can look at the same ring in three colourways before anything goes in the kiln. Tell us the colour reference you are working to, and whether the enamel is opaque or transparent, because the two catch light very differently.
Questions about Enamel
Can you render enamel colours accurately?
Yes, if you tell us the colour you are matching and whether it is opaque or transparent. Those two details drive how the surface reads.
Does the CAD file carry the enamel colour?
Usually not. STL and OBJ files store shape only, so we need you to name the colours and say which recess each one fills.