Cold Enameling- A More Simple Tutorial And Product Review

If you are a crafter who works with cold enameling, then you know how hard it is to get your miniatures nice and shiny.

And then you also know that cold enameling takes a special oven, with lots of heat and a decent knowledge of materials. With the high prices that come with it.

But today I am going to show you a method that makes all of that a lot easier and cheaper! Please read on to my tutorial, and I will also review a product for cold enameling!

 

No more worries, let’s make life easier!

I have found this particular Amazon shop that sells cold enamels in a large variety of colors, called “Efcolor“. Using these makes cold enameling a lot easier and cheaper. The basic principle though remains the same:

– clean the surface

– apply the powder

– The heat from a special oven makes sure that the powder melts together to form a smooth mass. That is all pretty nice and such, but we all know that an oven like that is pretty expensive.

 

 

Imagic enamel

This product from the brand Efcolor now makes it possible to enamel your miniatures at 150 degrees Celsius! This means you can use a simple household oven from now on.

Efcolor Cold Enamelling Set

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The funny thing is that there are also webshops that sell a little ‘oven’ where little tea lights can be put in, so that children can also work with it, without guidance or less guidance from adults. But if you are going to work with a household oven, always make sure to supervise your children!

Because I am really fond of new techniques, I bought myself a set to try it out. First on well-cleaned pieces of wood.

I put the powdered pieces on a little grid and after that with a spatula in a preheated oven. After a few seconds already the powder starts to get syrupy and after a minute or two, the pieces are already ready to take out of the oven and cool off.

The result is so beautiful, you can choose between metallic colors, glitter, and colors with ‘effect’. A black/gray effect color even looks like cloud-enameling! That can be so much fun to make pots and pans with, and other miniatures, because this product can also attach itself to paper and cardboard.

How about for example kitchen tablets with a marble look? Now that’s an interesting thought for me to keep in mind!

 

Something more tricky to do.

I made mini-pots and pans in the past that still needed a ‘shiny’ finish. So I wanted to try if Imagic enamel could do the job. I put the pots and pans on a grid and sprinkled them plenty with the powder.

This wasn’t very easy to do as the mini pans aren’t as straight as the coins obviously, but the result is wonderful!

The nice thick layer on the pots and pans is, of course, not made from glass, as this product is a kind of artificial plastic.

 

I do not advise using Imagic enamel on jewelry, because then it will probably get damaged rather quickly or get dull (although it is advertised as using it for jewelry).

But for our hobby, miniatures, and dollhouses, it’s a pretty good product that I will definitely be going to use more in the future because it is so easy to use and has a great result!

One thing I should add though is that when your miniature has many dimensions, then it is hard to add the powder without using glue, so you should keep that in mind. But it is a really interesting product to work with overall.

 

An expanded review of the Etsy shop named ‘Coldenamel’.

Some more info about this shop.

As you could see in the tutorial above, this shop sells all kinds of cold enameling products. The choice of colors is very large.

The shop also sells mouline in different colors and a few DIY embroidery kits.

The price :

These are $3,20 for one color, a whole set of 63 colors is $300,00 only.

Overall Rank.

Where to get this item.

On Etsy here.

The good and the bad :

 

Some More FAQ’s on Cold Enamel.

This is a blog post that I wrote almost three years ago (wow time flies, it is now November 2022!), but in the meantime, I gathered some questions that were asked in my mailbox, but couldn’t really answer. Sorry for keeping quiet!

But I went on looking for the answers and tried to look for more information for you, so here we go:

What other materials is enameling used for?

• Enamel is also used on steel and cast iron. ( cooking vessels, steel sinks, and even cast-iron bathtubs). How to apply enamel on metal, you can read about here.
  
• Evidently, (and even mostly), enamel is also used on jewelry
  
• and decorative art, like plates which aren’t really used to eat from 🙂
  

Does enamel paint need a primer?

If you would like to enamel metal, then yes, a coat of good-quality primer would be advised to apply!

A product like that will ensure that the topcoat can smoothly be applied on the surface.

Where to get cold enamel hardener and cold enamel supplies?

You can get these in a local hardware store but also online on Amazon.

Cold Enamel Hardener, Alpharock 2000

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What is cold enamel made of?

It is actually made of epoxy resin but pigmented. This makes the finish attractive and hard-wearing.

My Final Conclusion

Of course, you can use varnish to finish a miniature that you made with polymer clay for example ( I will post another review on miniature varnish in the near future as well ). But you can apply cold enameling powder on any material you like, with any color you want. Even on brass.

So if your hobby is figure sculpting, for example, this product is very handy to use and it looks like your sculpture is made of glass! Did I tell you already how excited I am about this cold enameling powder? 😉 I really enjoyed crafting an afternoon with this product.

There is some more information to be found on cold enameling on Youtube as well, as in this video:

Do you have any questions or comments on this topic? Feel free to ask in the comment section below or join me in my latest Facebook-group.

Happy crafting!

Kind regards,

Lizzy

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