[Jewelry making - Article 00009] - [Orchid] Argentium onlayed onto copper or bronze?

[Ellen Starr]

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

    I was wondering if Argentium can be onlayed onto copper and not
    tarnish. There is a turn of the century style of Hollowware by a
    company named Heitz, that I am interested in reproducing. I have
    done some of this style with regular Sterling, soldering it, but I
    had troubIe with the solder pooling into the copper around the edges
    of the design. This requires a lot of cleanup. It also is very time
    consuming to tin the sterling in order to sweat solder it onto the
    copper. I read that Argegntium fuses beautifully and recently tried
    an experiment of fusing it to copper, it fused easily, completely
    with no pooling onto the copper. II haven't tried activativing the
    germanium surface yet to know if the argentium will tarnish or not.
    Just wondered if anyone had tried this yet and what their results
    were. Will the copper eventually bleed through the Argentium
    (24-22ga) from the back? I was thinking that I might get some
    wonderful colors on the copper too when I heat the piece in my oven.
    Which brings be to another question, what's the best way to get
    really vivid colors on copper? 

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated, 

Thanks
Ellen Starr
Starr Design - Crystal, MN
____________________________________________________________________
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
____________________________________________________________________