Skip to main content

Useful Tips For Budding Wireworks #2 Oxidising

The second in a short series of useful tips, this time ~ Oxidising Sterling Silver & Copper jewellery

Whether you oxidise your jewellery or not is a personal choice. I prefer the look of oxidised or "antiqued" Sterling Silver and copper wirework as it adds depth and highlights detail.

What you will need ~


Liver of Sulphur


You can buy Liver of Sulphur in liquid or solid form. I say "solid" but it's really powdery chucks. I prefer the solid form as it is more economical. I buy mine on eBay and it can also be found on jewellery supply sites.





Steel/Wire Wool

0000 or 00000 Grade which can be found in DIY stores






Oxidising your jewellery

Before you start, close the kitchen door and open the back door (wide!) Yes the clue is in the name Sulphur and it stinks like rotten eggs!
Dissolve a small piece of Liver of Sulphur in hot but not boiling water in a small bowl. I keep a bowl especially for oxidising. Avoid touching the Liver of Sulphur if you can help it, it doesn't sting if it comes into contact with your skin but does make your skin tingle for a short while. Always wash your hands if they come into conatct with the Liver of Sulphur. Use a spoon or old pair of flatnose pliers to handle the Liver of Sulphur or gloves if preferred.
Drop your jewellery into the bowl. Copper oxidises very quickly, Sterling Silver takes a bit longer.



Once the jewellery has turned black/grey remove using a spoon/pliers and rinse in a bowl of cold water. Allow to dry on a piece of kitchen roll.
When dry, polish with wire wool over a piece of kitchen roll. This can be quite time~consuming but very therapeutic!




When you've finished cleaning with the wirewool check for any stray bits of wire. How much you clean up your jewellery is up to you : some people leave it fairly black, I prefer it well polished. Finish by polishing to a shine with a silver polishing cloth, available from any supermarket.



The End Result

 Before


After


 The Liver of Sulphur solution can be kept and used again, preferably on the same day, if you heat it up in the microwave. Any longer than a few hours and it loses it's effect. It's advisable to dispose of the solution by tipping down the outside drain!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Narrative jewelryTuesday, March 02, 2010

    Hello,

    Thanks to share your experience with LOS. I am really interested in because i use it a lot. Would you please let me know what you mean by "heat it up in the microwave", and "any longer than a few hours and it loses it's effect". Does it mean there is no more danger if you put it in the microwave after using ?
    Sorry but my english is not so good to understand subtilities...
    Love your wirework, just delicate and lovely.

    xox

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amanda RobinsMonday, April 12, 2010

    Tracy, I am going to try this. The effect is gorgeous and I ordered a heap of copper wire last night! Thanks for the info.
    Amanda

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Your comments and questions are very welcome!
If you would prefer to contact me directly please use the contact form on my "get in touch" page.
Any comments containing links will be deleted so please don't waste your time.....

Popular posts from this blog

Combining Soldering And Enamel

The need to make cute, brightly coloured enamel studs propelled me into the world of combining soldering with enamel a couple of years ago. I knew from reading up on it that it was possible to enamel and solder on the same piece but wasn't too confident I was able to do it back then. It was a slightly embarrassing occurance that made me just get on with - I'd made some enamel studs with glued on stud posts. I'd used 2 part epoxy resin which was a job in itself as it set hard after 5 minutes so I had to keep mixing more up. The finished studs looked ok but that little voice in my head kept asking "are you sure you want to use glue?" I wasn't but didn't think I had any other way to do it so I used glue. I sold my first pair and merrily sent them on their way to Canada. A couple of week later the buyer got in touch to say the stud post had come off one of the earrings and the other was hanging off. I was mortified, apologized profusely and refunded her m...
32 comments
Read more

My Jewellery Shed Gets A Lick Of Paint

At the end of last summer, after an incredibly busy few months jewellery-wise, I decided to take a break and repaint my shed. I'd painted it a pale green colour when I first got it and it was starting to look a bit faded and sad. So I did what I expect most people do and started looking online at what wonderful colour I could repaint it. There are lots of great colours out there by Cuprinol and Ronseal and the DIY stores own brands. I took a long time deciding on a colour then got in the car to go and buy the paint. That's when I discovered that B&Q and Homebase only carry a limited selection of shed paint colours {8 if you're lucky} and if you then find something in stock you do like they quite often don't have it in the size pot you need! So the colour I bought was a bit of "Oh buggar it, that'll have to do". Luckily it turned out to be similar to what I'd originally wanted by the time I'd finished the third coat - yes it took three coat...
4 comments
Read more

Amazing Enamel Effects

Buying a kiln recently has given me the chance to experiment with enamelling on larger pieces of copper and to produce some really cool effects. These effects happen when you combine different types of enamel. I usually use smaller flat pieces of copper for making enamelled earrings and have had some of these effects happen when firing with a torch but they are much more obvious when you use larger pieces. I made a few practice pieces which you can see in the photos below. This was flux {a transparent enamel not to be confused with soldering flux!} applied straight onto copper and fired until the copper was a bright golden colour. Then I added a layer of liquid enamel in green and red over the flux and fired again.  The lines and spots form when the enamel becomes hot enough to start moving and in this case the transparent pushes through the liquid enamel layer forming these cool lines and spots. The effect is better in the green liquid enamel than the red.  N...
31 comments
Read more