So far, I've been doing my enameling in a very on-the-fly manner, and for most of what I've been doing, that's ok. But now I'm starting to look at *very* heavy use items like cabinet pulls/knobs, functional buttons and closures, and belts (which take a lot of abuse being banged against counters/etc), so I'm looking at ways to reinforce the enamel and especially protect the edges form cracking. I've tried making the enamels and bezel-setting them, but bezels are time-consuming to get just right. It looks like I'm going to be putting wire rims on the borders of my pieces now. It's a couple of extra steps, but nothing like the pain of getting a bezel-set smooth.
Once I get a handle on the enamel, I can get a handle on the mountings, and I'm looking at systems where I can make the enamels and then set them as knobs, brooches, pendants, or whatever. I've got some ideas, but they definitely still need testing.
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