Enameling tool to help you avoid cracks. A Digital Caliper
You can see by these images how the two points of the digital caliper come together to give you the thickness of your enameled jewel. By using this you can determine if the thickness of the counter enamel is equal to the enamel on the front side of your jewel. It’s not always easy to tell by looking that they’re the same. Or maybe you lost count as you were enameling if you put the same amount of layers on the back as you have on the front of your enameled jewel. I see often enamelists posting, “Why is my enamel cracking?” It’s usually because the counter is not equal to the front side of your enamel
The jewel I am working on and using the digital caliper to help me as you can see, my jewel is domed.
And with counter enamel the underside of the jewel gets hotter than the top, and often it causes the counter enamel to thin at the under side of jewel making the sides thicker. This is another real good reason to use a digital caliper.
Hi Patsy,
I look forward to learning more from you. Do you teach?
Kind regards,
Paula
Hi Paula, Thank you for your visit. I am not teaching at the moment. I’ll let you know if I can get back to that. I recommend reading on the website. I’ve got almost a hundred posts there, and I talk about all the different forms of enameling, and I started that because I will place the into a book one day. It’s the best way for me to share everything I know. You are welcome to ask questions along your way. There’s a place at the bottom of each page to contact me, and I’m happy to answer. Welcome to the wonderful world of enameling! I hope to help you along your way. Patsy