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Hi Pam - Thank you for the description of rolling. I dropped out
of the string because I felt I needed more hands on time before
sharing any bits of knowledge. I would rather share from
experience than from what I have read or watched in a demo. Only
a few things come to mind after reading the many posts by those
of you who have a LOT more experience than myself. Just to have a
cup of tap water next to the hot plate to repeatedly quench/cool
the burnishing tool while working - so the gold foil does not
chose to adhere to the tool instead of the silver. Also, we used a
very watery mixture of cmc (from a ceramics store) or gum
tragacanth powder. About 1/4 teas to 1/2 baby food jar of water.
Using a fine brush apply watery solution to surface where gold
foil is to be applied - then place foil. When heating it on the
hotplate (Komelia does it on the hotplate direct) - watch the
changes. As the liquid burns off it will turn blackish then burn
off. The liquid does burn clean. There is a point when the
piece becomes a good heat and then it is possible to actively
tack down the foil in several places. Steady the piece with one
hand - either with a second burnisher or some type of tweezers -
and then gently rock the burnisher back and forth to spot tack
the foil in place. If doing multiple pieces of foil at once - go
around and spot tack all pieces a little - then come back and
burnish. Don't forget to dip the burnisher in the water to cool -
repeatedly. As Charles' article on Orchid mentioned - if there
are air bubbles - they can be pricked with a fine needle and
burnish out the air. (much like applying contact paper) Move the
air out towards the pin hole or the edge. I ran into trouble
applying somewhat larger pieces of foil - (i wanted to do a
project where I would run into trouble while I had Komelia's
help!) and was applying the pieces of foil over a piece that had
bends (the scoring and bending technique). Would try to burnish
on one side and the other would pop up etc. etc. Well, the
enlightening thing that I learned was that the piece of foil had
become work hardened from the "many" attempts to adhere the foil
to the silver by burnishing. . . . So, Komelia had me anneal the
small pieces of gold foil directly on the burner (til they limped
as described in other posts) - and what a difference - the foil
application worked like a dream. Funny - it is common sense
really - just apply the same basic principles of metalwork to
whatever scale it is. Also, we only heated the sterling silver in
bringing the fine silver to the surface - maybe 2 to 4 times ( I
remember reading 8x in a post - maybe, though, with 8x you would
have a terrific surface of fine silver to work on). She
explained to heat the piece just below annealing temp - you could
see any firescale slightly darken. Stop then and quench in
pickle. Let it sit in the pickle a few minutes. Then clean with
baking soda/ toothbrush (or finger rub) or someone brought a
wonderful brass brush that had a nice soft feel. Do this between
each round of heating - pickle - brush - except the last round.
The number of times to for this process is to repeat until there
is no discoloration when gently heating with the torch. On the
last round - just pickle and rinse. This leaves a nice frosted
white surface ready for the kum-boo. That's all - now to do do
more of the technique (after taxes!). This info comes from my
experience at the workshop only. Komelia buys her cotton gloves
at a Korean grocery. (We have these stores where I live.) When
the gloves are washed - they shrink and have a nice snug fit -
so, less of a chance to burn by mistake. Just thinking here that
maybe those white bulk pack gloves for handling jewelry might be
ok if we wore a few pairs (2 or 3) and washed them to shrink them
- hmmmm. dunno. I just work fast - with asbestos fingers
developed over the years. Still haven't figured out the gloves
dilemna. Don't forget the hotplate is hot! Komelia also
mentioned to be careful when wearing contact lenses. When she
demoed the kum-boo on her raised creamer vessel - a lot of heat
is generated - and it takes time working on the kum-boo - so, she
recommends wearing glasses only. cynthia
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