Conquered...Sort Of

I've had it in my head for years that I want to master a tap and die connection. Why? Well, when I was a student I had a go and I completely screwed it up. Pardon the pun!  

I made a brooch for a lovely lady Deborah Drearley, who's having a hard time fighting battles to save some beautiful coastal Moonahs.  She loves the brooch but was wondering if I could cap it somehow so it wouldn't catch on cloth.  


The perfect opportunity to take out the tap and die set.  I am convinced the best way to learn is to have a problem to solve.  This is a one off mind you, I'm sure there are simpler solutions, like a rubber tip perhaps.
It was a bit like fitting pieces of a puzzle together; where does this bit go, and what do I do with it?  I think I figured it out, or at least I was confident I had when I produced a silver screw. The female/tube, however was tiny and I thought it would just be too fiddly.  
Given the brooch is a cast Moonah seed pod I thought I could use the same idea of a single pod that I had used for Tara's ring.  This, I have to confess was after an unsuccessful attempt to add a silver ball to the end of the tube. I must have been delusional to think a pod would be any easier to attach but the solder took on the first try.


Now if I could only conquer Mandarin and piano!  As far as jewellery goes, I'm looking at these Moonah pods and thinking they have a natural bezel, am I crazy?  Would it be possible to mount a stone?  I also have a box of enamels which I must have used at some stage but can't remember how.  I never had a kiln.  There is a tiny bottle of lavender oil in with the colours.  So now I'm on the hunt for a good tutorial on torch or cold enamelling, if such a thing exists.