[Jewelry making - Article 00196] - Re: [Orchid] Keum boo burnishing marks

[Cynthia Wiig]

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>      How do you determine the proper temperature? 

    Hi Noel -  Okay, I'll give it a try here to explain what works for
    me!  It was really trial and error to figure it out. 

    Thanks to some great feedback from Katherine quite a while back, I
    placed a piece of flat steel on my hot plate as a surface for holding
    the pieces (as opposed to placing them on the hot plate directly). 
    The piece of scrap steel sheet that I found is about 3" square -
    12gauge thick.  It works just fine. It even had a hole in it that
    works well when there is an earring post. 

    I'll just leave the pieces on the hotplate for a while and go do
    something else and then, come back.  I have marked a dot on my hot
    plate where to turn the temperature dial each time - for the heat
    that has worked for me.  The piece will then be held at that
    temperature.  I'll sprinkle a few drops of water on the piece and
    when it sizzles it's a good temperature to start the burnishing. 

    In a workshop with Komelia a few years back, I had prematurely tried
    to burnish a piece of gold foil to the prepared silver surface.  It
    got very stiff and curled . . . work-hardened.  So, she had me put
    the piece of gold foil directly on the burner to anneal it.  It got
    nicely limp again - and was ready to reapply.  Oh, by the way,
    Komelia cautioned us not to use the old coiled type of hotplate -
    because it can short when using the metal burnisher. 

    Komelia taught us to place the gold foil pieces with the watery gum
    tragacanth mixture on the silver and then bring them all up to heat
    together.  I don't always follow that rule - but will sometimes just
    put the next piece to kumboo on the hot hotplate.  What can happen,
    then, is the pieces of foil might have a tendancy to dance and lift
    up.  If you are using a watery gum tragacanth mixture to adhere the
    foil in place, it will change color - turns black and then
    disappears.  That is another clue of a good time to burnish. 

    I don't necessarily use the gum tragacanth solution - and have
    started just applying the foil directly.  I will just carefully place
    the gold where I want it, tack it down here and there with the dental
    burnisher and then burnish the whole piece down.  When the tacking
    adheres nicely, then it pretty well follows that the rest of the foil
    piece is ready to be burnished.  When tacking, it helps to hold the
    burnishing tool steady and just rock it back and forth. 

    Hope this input made sense and is useful to your efforts.  It'll be
    good to hear what works for others as well. 

Cynthia  :)

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