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It is possible to decorate an object, besides stones, by using certain techniques that keep other coloured materials with gold. Some are are embed just as if they were stones, while others, like enamel, are kept in alveolus reaching a high grade of mastery through the use of fused vitreous powders. Since the Egyptian ages the technique of enamel has met many moments of success, allowing the development of some main techniques due to their different kind of effect. The French were great teachers in these enamelling techniques and so were the Scandinavian, the Russian and the Chinese.
When an object is about to be enameled it is necessary, first of all to check that the material is suitable to the development of this technique: gold, silver, and especially copper because not all metals can be enameled owing to their different thermal expansion, that in its cooling phase would make the enamel crack detaching it. If the object is made up of more parts weld together, it is necessary that the welding is resistant to the high temperatures, right for the objects to enamel. In any case a good thing to do is to eliminate every excess of welding in the parts that are to be enameled because it can change the colour of the enamel.
You can find the enamel ready in powder or, although it's very rare, in vitreous fragments that will have to be reduced in very fine powder pounding it in a mortar of agatha, with a pestle also in agatha or in another material that doesn't leave impurities. Proceed with this operation keeping the grains or the powder wet with water, this operation can be facilitated by giving a rotating motion to the pressure of the pestle, then leaving the enamel deposit on the bottom and pouring the dirty water with the impurities of the raw material; repeat this operation more times untill a clear water is obtained.
A few baths, usually about ten, will be enough to obtain a good materia, in other case it will be necessary to double them.When this operation is concluded, that will have to be repeated for all the colours that are going to be used (use everytime the right quantity for the decoration since the enamel once it's prepared it detoriates when it gets in touch with air), if some material is left over it has to be put in a glass container away from impurities, covered with a layer of water and a piece of paper for the reasons said above. The object must have a thickness of at least 1-1,5mm considering the excavation for the arrangement of the enamel of about 0,5mm; this depends on the type of metal and on the dimension of the part to enamel. If the enamelling is on the two sides (front and back) the thickness can be finer since it balances the motion of ondulation of the plate. A surface "bombè" will be better, because it waves less in comparison to a flat one while the latter will be easier to enamel and to give the finishing touch. In order to have an object without impurities (oxide, fats, powder, etc,) it's a good thing to have, according to the circumstances and to the workings, baths done to the with diluted solutions of acid and with abundant rinsings with running water.
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