I'm Loving........Liver Of Sulphur XL Gel

Noticing my supply of Liver of Sulphur chunks was running low recently I thought I'd better order some more. I've found getting hold of the chunks quite hard recently so I was interested to see my usual supplier Joy Funnel of ArtClayUK on eBay was now stocking Liver Of Sulphur XL Gel.

It's a stable gel form with an extended life hence "XL" which is ideal as the chunks tend to lose their effect after a couple of months and must be kept away from moisture. I've used the liquid form of Liver Of Sulphur once before which is available from Kernowcraft in the UK, £2.95 for 10ml but found it wasn't very economical and the results could be a bit patchy, so I was interested to see how I would get on with the XL Gel.

The XL Gel from ArtClayUK costs £6.95 for 30ml and comes in a plastic bottle with a nozzle top. I tend to oxidise maybe five or six pieces of jewellery at a time (I can't face polishing up more than that at once!) and the tiniest amount will give the desired results - I take the top off and dip just the end of a knife into the bottle then dissolve the gel on the knife in the hot water and that's plenty to get a dark grey colour on the Sterling Silver.
So despite the XL Gel being a bit more expensive than the chunks and liquid form I can see it's going to last me much longer so is more economical in the long run AND less messy than the chunks!

Sterling Silver oxidised and polished

Comments

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...

Torch Enamelling - What I've been Up To Recently!

I've admired enamelled jewellery for a while now and not too long ago did a blog post about Etsy seller tekaandzoe and her wonderful kiln enamelled creations. I didn't think at the time that it was something I would ever be able to do as the cost of kilns plus lack of space would be a problem for me. That wasn't until I saw an advert for a torch enamelling tutorial from US jewellery supplies website Beaducation by Steven James . It's a great tutorial showing the basics on how to torch enamel on copper. Of course I bought it! I then spent hours scouring the internet for more information on torch enamelling, where to buy the tools I'd need and of course the enamel powders. There are quite a few UK sites selling enamelling supplies and tools but as usual I found the US sites had more choice (why do we always lag behind?) I bought some enamel powders from a couple of UK sites to begin with - Cookson Gold have a good selection but bear in mind th...

Etching Silver Using Nail Art Stamps

So my love/hate relationship with etching sterling silver continues. I've tried a few times now and always end up with different results most of them not that great to be honest. I've tried connecting the silver and a piece of copper to a 9v battery and also heating the ferric nitrate. Sometimes the results are good sometimes not so good. I currently have an etched piece of silver sheet waiting to be reticulated and rid it of the mess that is the etched "pattern". I now know that using stamps and Stayz On ink just doesn't work with silver - the time needed to etch using ferric nitrate is much longer than etching copper and the ink starts to wear away after about an hour. This results in the pattern being patchy as the resist is eaten away and the silver ends up quite lumpy and course looking. I have yet to try using pnp paper. I don't know why but it all seems a bit of a faff to do. I don't have a laser printer so would need to find somewhere or...

Cinnamon Jewellery

Search This Blog