Hello - I haven’t used Durenamel a lot yet, just for a couple jobs
that needed a small bit of color here and there. I made the smallest
amount recommended (I think about 10g). I did have quite a bit of
waste at the end, but I used that to test its various qualities to see
how it would work for some future pieces I have in mind. I let it set
up and did some shaping and polishing, to see how it worked on larger
quantities (which worked quite well). I also used some of the waste
to see how the resin flowed using a needlepoint syringe (also pretty
cool). This was only in the past year or so, and the colors haven’t
degraded. I don’t think that resin ‘enamels’ really compare at all
with glass enamel - they have totally different qualities and they
look very different. Too, resin enamel is just . . . less precious
(for an overused art school term).
Like glass enamel though I think you have to be very considerate of
the type of jewelry and the area you are covering - in a ring a large
field of resin could get pretty beat up and scratched and over time I
think it would at best develop a matte quality and at worst would get
gouged and look terrible. I haven’t had a chance to work with glass
enamel yet, so the resin is fun and a little different. Also, color
for me is challenging as a design element, so resin is an inexpensive
and easy way to experiment. I know it has uses I haven’t explored
yet, and there are several things I’d like to try. Inlaying etched
metal, for example (I like DHFell’s pattern sheets), or glueing
translucent or transparent stones together with a strongly different
color of epoxy resin. The Rio Grande catalog makes it look kind of
’crafty’, but I think it has its uses. I don’t know that it will hold
up over the long term very well, so I don’t think I’ll be
experimenting with it on anything expensive, but if a customer wanted
a design done in platinum I’d be happy to oblige.
~kara