jewelry

Tricks to making small silver balls for sterling silver decoration….(does that make sense? hahaha)

So I just started trying to make these little silver accent balls for my jewelry.  Some tricks and lessons learned:

Use fine silver, not sterling silver.  Take any leftover fine silver bezel wire and melt those down into balls.  Try to keep the strips you cut the same length.  If you make the balls too big they have a tendency to collapse in on themselves and not create a nice round ball.  If you want the balls to be flat on one side solder them on a flat surface.  However, if you would like your silver balls to have a perfect spherical shape you can dig out a little hole in your soldering block, this will keep the silver from forming a flat side.

Adhering the balls to the surface is just that easy, file one side of your ball so it has a flat surface to sit on, otherwise it may roll on you during soldering.  Place a small piece of medium solder under your ball and heat.  Easy as that!!

key take aways:

  • use fine silver scrap
  • don’t make them too big, they won’t hold their spherical shape
  • dig out a little hole in your soldering block to make perfect spheres
  • use medium solder (depending on your design and steps/order of your process)

 

 

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How to etch base metals…copper, brass, and nickel

So etching the base metals is very similar to etching sterling silver, the only major difference is the chemicals used.  The chemical used for etching base metals is Ferric Chloride.  

Ferric chloride is a traditional home-use circuit board etchant. It’s easy enough to come by, and the Ferric by itself is no big environmental problem. However, once you’ve etched with it, you’re left with a solution with a bunch of copper chloride in it. This dissolved copper is an environmental problem, and you can’t just pour it down the drain (legally) — you’re supposed to take it to a hazardous waste facility.  Plus, think about it…your pipes are copper…this is a copper etchant…not recommended that you pour it down your drain anyways.  There are other recipes out there using hydrochloric acids and peroxide, but to me they are just as dangerous.  Ferric chloride can be obtained either as a solid (not recommended as it can give off highly toxic hydrogen chloride fumes when mixed with water) or in liquid form.
 
I used to order my Ferric Chloride in powder form but found this is the worst way to get it.  It requires you to mix it in water yourself and the reaction is pretty strong.  The fumes from the reaction are really strong and the reaction between the powder and the water makes the solution really really hot.  So in short  I don’t recommend you buy this, instead I would buy the liquid form from Daniel Smith Art Supplies.  There are no fumes and mess to worry about.  1 gallon runs about $20-25.
 
For disposal, look on your towns local website, they may offer a Hazardous Waste Day so people can drop off paints and oils.  They will provide you with a list of items you cannot submit but Ferric Chloride is not on that list, so you can drop it off there.  

 
The process to using the etchant is the same as Ferric Nitrate for silver.  You want to agitate the solution for a nice uniform etch on your piece.  Once you start to notice your etchant times becoming longer and longer, the solution is exhausted and its time to start with fresh. You can store the Ferric Chloride in any plastic container but I recommend a secondary containment for the plastic container if you plan to store it for a while.  This will protect you from any potential leaks.  You can neutralize the etchant by adding baking powder to the solution but I recommend adding a little bit at a time because it too has a violent reaction to the etchant.  Neutralizing it just puts it in a safe state.  
 
Give it a try!  I find that I love to etch nickel the most because it gives the metal an natural patina antique look without the addition of patina chemicals.  You will be happy with the results!
 
Feel free to add your experiences to this post so we can all learn from them and develop our own ideal methods :o)Image
 
 

 

How to etch sterling silver

So many of you on Facebook have been asking about how I do this so I thought I would share in more detail here.  I hope you find it useful.  

I will start off by saying, for etching sterling silver I use Ferric Nitrate.  You can buy this from The Science Company online usually in 500grams or more.  When you get it you have to mix it with water to make the solution, probably fairly obvious I know ;o)  I don’t have a solid recipe that I use but I will say I use about two cups of warm water to about 1 cup of crystals. I have a magnetic stir plate that mixes the solution for me and agitates it while I etch.  You just place a magnetic pill in the solution and the magnet inside the base plate rotates, rotating the pill and mixing the solution.  It is extremely handy and I believe can be purchased on Rio Grande but it wouldn’t hurt to check Craigslist or something.

Once the solution is mixed your ready to prep your piece.  A lot of places tell you to use permanent marker or even wax to create designs but I find that the marker comes off very easily in the solution.  Roughing up your surface a little might help with the marker but then you have etched texture (which may look cool) from the rough surface.  I prefer to use some kind of sticker.  It adheres really nicely to the surface and it gives me a nice clean edge when I etch.  You can find stickers of all different kinds at your local craft store, or you can buy some vinyl and cut out any shapes you want.  You will be super happy with the results.  

Depending on the strength of your etch, if its fresh I usually leave it in for about 1 hour to start.  When you take it out to check it you may have to gently wipe away some of the silver that has etched on the surface but has not fallen off.  Rinse and check it once in awhile until you achieve the desired depth.  When you are happy with the etch, remove the pattern and wash the piece with a soft tooth brush and dish washing liquid like Dawn.  I don’t recommend that you use the tooth brush for anything other then cleaning your pieces from that point on ;o)  

some quick tips:

  • I use reverse tweezers to hold the piece in the solution.  You can also punch a hole and hang it off the side of the container with some insulated or coated wire.    
  • agitating the solution helps with the etching process.
  • the solution will stain your skin so be sure to wear the proper protection if you want your skin color to be normal ;o) 
  • make sure the piece is free and clean of any greasy finger prints because it will etch your finger prints into the metal

Well look, if I’ve missed something don’t hesitate to add comments or ask questions :o)  Thanks guys!  I hope this helped and happy etching!

 

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Techniques tutorial …what would you like to know?

I am going to start posting metal jewelry techniques for all of my followers.  I may not know everything but I know some things :0). Upcoming posts will include etching different metals, stone settings, finishes, etc.  if there is something you would like to learn or know let me know I will post my experiences.  I think it’s great to have a community of resources to learn from.  A lot of people get offended when you ask questions about their techniques but I think that’s lame.  We should want to share techniques….no one can steal your ideas and style!