Answered plainly.

Vitreous enamel is glass, fired in a kiln at around 1,470°F (800°C). Cold enamel — also sold as resin enamel, epoxy enamel, or simply "enamel" — is a two-part plastic resin poured into a recess and left to cure at room temperature. No kiln, no glass.

They behave nothing alike. Resin yellows in sunlight, dulls, lifts at the edges, and scratches with a fingernail; it usually shows its age within a few years, and it cannot be repaired. Fired enamel does none of those things, because it is fused into the metal rather than resting in it.

The reason resin is so common is simple: it is fast and cheap. Fired enamel is neither — it takes a painter, a kiln, and many separate firings.

Printing transfers an image onto the surface — usually a photograph, sometimes under a resin dome. It reproduces a photo faithfully, and it wears the way any printed surface wears.

Engraving cuts into the metal. It gives you line and depth, but no color.

Painted enamel is neither. It is an image made of colored glass, built up in layers and fired between each one. That is also why it doesn't look like a photograph: a painter is interpreting your image at about an inch across, under a microscope.

A few honest tests, in order of how much they tell you.

Look at the edge under a bright light. Fired enamel meets the metal in a clean, slightly glassy line. Resin often sits proud of the metal, or has a faint meniscus like a drop of glue.

Look for yellowing. Clear and pale resin yellows with UV. Fired enamel does not.

Tap it gently with a fingernail. Glass sounds hard and bright. Resin sounds dull.

Consider the price. Fired enamel means a painter and a kiln for hours. When a piece costs less than that labor, something else is going on.

Because of the hours, and because of the failures.

Each color is painted, then fired, then painted again — a single piece may enter the kiln a dozen times, and the color you paint with is not the color it becomes until it comes back out. The work is done under a microscope, with brushes that hold a few hairs.

And enamel is unforgiving: silver melts at 1,760°F; enamel fuses at 1,470°F. There are fewer than three hundred degrees between making a piece and destroying it, and the kiln doesn't tell you which happened until you open it. Pieces are lost. Their cost lives in the ones that survive.

It is glass, so it is honest about what it is: it will not fade, will not scratch off, and will not wear thin — but it will chip if you strike it hard against something harder.

In normal daily wear that almost never happens. What does damage enamel is impact, and sudden changes of temperature. See How do I care for it? below.

You send a photo or an idea. We send you a design and you approve it. We paint and fire it. We photograph the finished piece and you approve it again. Then it ships — about six weeks from the day you approve your design.

No, and we would rather say so now. These pieces are about an inch across and painted by hand under a microscope, so the honest style is closer to watercolor than to photography. We don't paint every hair — nobody can at this scale, and anything that claims to has been printed.

What we do paint is the shape of the face, where the colors meet, the markings that make them them, and the color of the eyes. If you want it pushed toward realism, tell us at the start — it changes how we paint from the first layer.

A dog. A cat. A horse. A child's face. A single eye. A flower somebody grew. A jellyfish. A line of handwriting. One word.

What we don't do is photorealistic human faces. At an inch across, a face that chases photography lands in the uncanny valley; a face that is painted looks like a person. We'll show you the difference before you commit.

One clear picture of the face, in daylight, with both eyes visible. Your phone is fine — almost any phone is fine. If the photo you love is from 2011 and slightly blurry, send it anyway.

A person looks at every photo before we start. If it won't work, we'll ask you for another one before we take the commission any further.

We paint exactly what you type, and we confirm the exact wording with you at design approval — which is why we check it twice.

Spelling you supply is not covered by our remake policy. Read it once more before you approve; after that, the carving is cut from your approved design.

Yes. It is most of what we do. Send whatever photo you have, however old it is, and tell us anything that mattered — the gray that came in late, the ear that always sat differently.

For the ones who aren't here anymore →

Take it off before showers, baths, swimming, and hot springs. Steam and soaking are what it minds most, along with hard knocks.

Keep it away from perfume, hairspray, and cleaning chemicals — last on, first off is a good rule. And keep it away from sudden extremes of temperature: a hot piece meeting cold water can crack fired enamel the same way it cracks glassware.

Store it separately from other jewelry. A metal clasp or a harder stone will scratch an enamel surface given the chance.

The enamel will not. It is glass fused into the metal, not a coating, and it does not fade with light or time. Solid 18K gold does not fade either.

Plating is a different, honest story — see below.

Yes, slowly. Our silver is polished and left uncoated — no plating over it — and uncoated silver reacts with the air over months and years. It is what silver has always done, and it is not a fault in the piece.

A silver polishing cloth brings it back in a minute or two — and one comes in the box with every silver piece, so you have it from day one. Some people use it every few months; some let the metal settle and prefer it that way.

The enamel is unaffected either way. It is glass, and glass does not tarnish — so the painting stays exactly as it left the kiln while the metal around it ages.

Eventually, yes. All plating wears — on every piece of jewelry ever made, it is a matter of time, not luck. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

What differs is how long. Typical gold plating is 0.02–0.03 microns. Ours is 3 microns — about a hundred times thicker — so that time is measured in years of daily wear rather than months. When it does eventually thin, write to us and we can replate it.

Solid 18K gold has no plating to wear.

For the enamel itself, a soft dry cloth. That is genuinely all.

If your piece is polished silver, the metal will darken over time. The silver polishing cloth in your box takes it back to bright in a minute or two — write to us when it wears out and we will send another. Work the cloth on the metal and keep it off the enamel — the enamel never needs it, and the cloth carries a mild polishing compound.

If your piece is 18K gold vermeil, do not use a polishing cloth on it. Those cloths are gently abrasive, and on a plated surface abrasion is the one thing you are trying to avoid. A dry cloth only.

Not commercial jewelry-cleaning solutions — the chemicals dull enamel and attack plating. And never an ultrasonic cleaner: the high-frequency vibration can crack a fired enamel surface, and even the mildest setting is too aggressive.

If it needs more than a cloth, write to us rather than risking it.

Write to us with photos. What is possible comes down to the finish.

Solid 18K gold and polished silver can both go back into the kiln, so a chipped piece can usually be repaired. If yours has stones, they have to be taken out before it is fired and set again afterward — that is real bench work, so we quote it before we start.

18K gold vermeil cannot be re-fired — the kiln would destroy the plating. For those we look at the options with you honestly rather than pretending there is an easy fix.

Impact damage isn't reversible on its own, and we'll tell you plainly what can and can't be done before you commit to anything.

About six weeks from the day you approve your design. Priority service takes four weeks of studio time — in your hands in as little as five. For a date that matters, give us three months.

Full refund within 24 hours of ordering, before we start. After you've seen your design, 80% — the 20% covers the hours already spent designing your piece. Once you approve the design, the carving and mold are made from it, and we can't refund it.

If a piece arrives damaged or isn't what we showed you, that is different: we replace it, and your legal rights as a consumer are unaffected.

Priority service moves your commission to the front of the queue: four weeks of studio time, in your hands in as little as five. It costs $150 or 25% of your piece, whichever is higher — the fee buys studio priority, not carrier speed, and expedited shipping is always listed separately at cost. To arrange it, write to hello@peacepieceshop.com — after you order, or before if the date is already set — and we'll confirm it in writing.

Four weeks is a hard floor, and it's a physical one: enamel is fired more than once, and glass has to cool between firings. Below four weeks we would be gambling with your piece, so we don't offer it.

Priority asks one thing of you in return: design feedback within 24 hours. If life gets in the way, we'll move you gently back into the standard queue and hold your fee as credit toward the piece — you don't lose it.

Yes, worldwide. Tracked and insured, signature required.

Yes — photographs of your piece in progress come to you along the way, and you don't have to ask. If you'd like them put together as a short film to keep, tell us at the start.

Every piece ships in our own box, with a silver polishing cloth included as standard.

If it’s for a date that matters and you’d like the packaging to match — a particular box, a hand-written card, wrapping chosen for the occasion — tell us and we'll help you choose. Special packaging is quoted separately and added before we ship.