Hi peeps ... I want a bit of advice or suggestions from all you experienced pmc people! I am trying to develop a 'range' of pmc pieces that have enamelled highlights. I am after a degree of repeatability as these will be 'limited edition' pieces - exclusive to one outlet. Hopefully I will go on to do pendants of various shapes and bracelet links...and who knows what else!!! But the basic set up is that I have designed these little tiles into which I am adding enamelled highlights and I want to attach them to 'backplates' of various shapes and sizes. Obviously - as an almost total novice enameller - I do run the risk of mucking a few up!! - I accept that as inevitable! The thing is - if I build the piece first then fire it before going on to enamel I run the risk of 'wasting' a lot of silver (tiles and backplate) if something goes wrong at the enameling stage. So, ideally, I would like to attach the 'perfect' enamelled tiles that I make to the backplates!

I know you can join fired pmc to fired pmc...but what about fired pmc with enamel to fired pmc? When I attempt to join them in the kiln the temperature must be low enough to not affect the enamel. How low do you think I could go to ensure a fairly robust join without spoiling the enamel? Any other thoughts or ideas?

I don't want to use cold enamels/resin as I am going for a 'historically sympathetic' look. And I don't really want rivets because the tiles are too detailed and additional 'metal' would look out of place. I don't really want to do any sort of setting/prong/collet device as 1. I don't know how and 2. I need to keep costs down and the amount of time for all that would boost the labour costs sky high!!

I've attached a quick sketch to try to illustrate the sort of thing I am thinking of... All suggestions welcome!

http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/s...nameltiles.jpg