Process of Making Hard-Fired Cloisonné Pins

   
Click to Enlarge Color Chart

 The high luster and durability of cloisonné is an ancient art that requires meticulous, hand-crafted detailing. Your custom-designed pin is hand filled with custom cloisonné pastes and then kiln fired at very high temperatures. After firing, each pin is hand polished and plated, resulting in an exquisite piece of jewelry.

The majority of pin companies do not differentiate hard enamel cloisonné from hard-fired cloisonné pins. One indicator is the amount of colors utilized in the creation of the pin.

Authentic hard-fired cloisonné have approximately 120 colors where hard enamel cloisonné can have over 1,000. The pin is not an authentic cloisonné pin if the company states that they can match industry standard colors from a color guide.

The Chinese have created authentic cloisonné pins for centuries by methods that are currently in use today. Before being baked the pins are made from die where each color is applied to recessed areas and then finally polished. Because of the limited number of colors and high cost of production many pin customers selected hard enamel cloisonné pins.