[Jewelry making - Article 00101] - Re: [Orchid] Post Pickle Staining

[Karen Christians]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

    Are you polishing the pieces before hand and then soldering and then
    pickling? I recommend using boric acid and denatured alcohdol
    instead of past flux. The flux will react to the waxes in the
    polishing compounds. 

    The "skin" created after continuous heat cycles is actually fine
    silver being deposited onto the surface. Each time you heat sterling,
    a small amount of copper is burned off. This is known as depletion,
    and for me, is very desirable. 

    Flux your silver, paste flux is fine, anneal, cool, pickle, rinse
    and brass brush with a bit of soap and water. Repeat this 7 times.
    Done slowly and without overheating, you can raise a lovely skin of
    fine silver to the surface. Roller printing onto this surface is
    sublime and tarnishes much, much slower than a regular sterling
    piece. Oxidize the roller printed surface and the metal melds with
    the patina. I like to use leaves on this one. 

    If you have a PMC kiln, this is perfect for annealing larger pieces.
    Set the kiln to 1200, place the piece in for 1 minute each time. 

-k

Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
50 Guinan St.
Waltham, MA 02451
Ph. 781/891-3854 Fax 3857
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio

____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________