Purchase Your Metals
I have seen students, all located in different area of the country with either the wrong metal or impure metal when attending my classes or workshops. When you are enameling for jewelry and select fine silver as your base metal to capture sparkle and clarity of the enamels, you want to know you have pure metal. With hobby style resources available for purchasing metal and the introduction of new metals such as Argentium silver it is easy to get the wrong product and not that easy to tell the difference. And you do not want to began project, and have four layers of enamels before you start seeing the bubbles and discoloration of impure metals. I highly recommend to purchase your metal from one reliable supplier, and only one. Then you know exactly were it came from and can hold them accountable if it is fine silver. But more than likely, if it is from a notable refinery they will not have a problem of recognizing metals.