[Jewelry making - Article 00345] - Re: [Orchid] Fusing Sterling to Sterling

[Noel Yovovich]

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    Hi, Joe, Thanks for your kind words. The piece is actually "Just My
    Cup Of Tea"--the thread was "flashy tea. The torch texture is one
    reason to fuse-- the texture can be very funky, a combination of
    reticulation, bubbles, craters, all kinds of things, partly
    depending on the forms you start with, and increasing with each
    "layer" of fusing. Take a look at the work of the woman who was my
    teacher for this technique, Marne Ryan
    http://www.marneryan.com/index.html. On the other hand, fusing can be
    done without any texture at all, as in granulation. I've done pieces
    with rectangular wire laid on edge on a back sheet and fused, with
    gold balls scattered among them. But doing this without texture and
    without melting the upper layer takes more luck, mpre practice, and,
    for me, the Mecu torch. I did it at the workshop, but then just
    couldn't get it to work at home with my Smith acet/air. It still
    isn't all that easy with the Meco and propane/oxy (we had natural
    gas/oxy at Revere) but it is much better, maybe because you have
    more variables to adjust, to get a fluffy but intense flame. Marne
    uses a Hoke. At Revere, she had use work with no tip at all on the
    Meco, just the pipe. With propane, this seems too hot to me. I would
    say that fusing one layer is a lot easier to avoid creating texture
    than with multiple layers, if only because you tend to trap air
    between the layers, and when you heat it again, the air swells and
    makes blisters. The rolling helps even out your surface and squeeze
    out air so contact is solid and helps limit high spots that will
    make your next heating harder to keep even. Oddly, the silver flows
    smoothly without flux. It turns black, and you are always told that
    this will inhibit flow, but I'm here to tell you it works, though I
    haven't used such thick material. I use mostly quite thin-- 26, 28
    and 30 guage. You can put two blackened pieces together and fuse
    them. It is important to have good contact, though, or parts
    sticking up will almost surely melt. High karat gold fuses on quite
    easily also, very smooth, but the trick there is to keep the silver
    from flowing over the gold and making it disappear. 

    I hope I touched on all your questions, and that this helps. Fusing
    is a lot of fun, especially if you like the funky look, because it
    is never ruined. At worst, you run it through the mill until it
    cracks, then cut it up and fuse it together again. 

--Noël


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