The incredible, handy egg.

I've wanted to play around with oxidizing—intentionally darkening— some silver pieces for a while now. About a year or so ago (probably longer, now that I think about it) I bought a small rock of liver of sulfur from an Etsy seller with every intention of testing it out on a small batch of silver. Well, I never got around to it and, long story short, it had gone bad by the time I tried it. "Yeah, that happens after a while..." my husband informed me. (Helpful now, honey, thanks. lol)

Well, I was working on a custom PMC piece for a friend to give to his wife for Christmas and that was going to be the piece that I successfully oxidized. To the Etsy forums! I had read before about using eggs to oxidize silver, so figured what the heck, I'd give it a try. It's really simple, actually. And not toxic. And not to mention good in salads.

The photos are from a new batch I just did the day before yesterday. You simply put your pieces to be oxidized into an airtight container—I prefer a clear one because I can check on them without disturbing them too soon. I used two eggs. You want the water to boil before adding them and then boil them for about 15 minutes or so. Once hard boiled, remove them with a spoon from the water and cut them open with a knife, quickly transferring them into the airtight container, sealing the lid. You want to move quickly because the heat and steam help the sulfur from the yolks darken your pieces.

Once they get to the desired darkness, you remove the lid, clean the egg off of the pieces by rinsing and wiping with a paper towel and then use very fine steel wool (I believe I used 0000 grade) to remove the oxidation in the raised parts of the pieces as you like.

I actually tried this batch first, removing the whites from the eggs once boiled, but they cooled too quickly that way and mostly my pieces just turned a funky yellowish color. Not very attractive. I boiled a couple more and just halved them and put them in the container and had much better, darker results.

These are a few of the pieces all polished up using steel wool. I imagine I will keep practicing, but I'm really happy with the results overall!

Yikes! I have no jewelry of my own!

For a while now, I've been trying to concentrate on keeping my shop full and fulfilling custom orders. It dawned on my that I haven't made anything for myself in quite a while. After visiting a bead show last weekend and finding one of my new favorite stones, I decided to make myself a new favorite necklace.

Red Creek Jasper is absolutely stunning. The variations of color and pattern throughout each bead are quite striking and unique to each, so much so that they required little work from me to produce this beautiful piece. I only bought a single strand and if I can find more, you'll likely see something similar in my shop before too long. But I'm keeping this one! :)

Ah, metal stamping...

I am one of those people who sees something and has that (sometimes idiotic) thought "I could do that". Okay, most times it pans out okay for me. Other times I finally figure out that I might actually benefit from some instruction or guidance. Yeah.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a metal letter stamping set and some sterling silver stamping blanks. I know, I know "buy some inexpensive copper sheet or aluminum to practice with first instead of ruining more expensive sterling silver". I can't tell you how many times I've read that! Well, I mean, who needs practice metal, right? As you can see below, I needed it. Badly.

WISH. Right. I wish I was able to pull this off. WISH I had purchased a cheap sheet of copper. You know what they say about hindsight. So these were my first couple attempts. I ended up experimenting with my hammer, too, for texture, and stamping both sides of these. May as well, right?

Then last weekend, I went to the Intergalactic Bead Show which comes to town 2 or 3 times a year. I love it. There are so many great vendors and I usually find something I've been 'needing', so that's always cool. Well, as luck would have it, there was a lady there selling various tools for use in metal stamping (and actually cutting the discs as well)! I was very excited. She did a stamping demo for me, so I found out some of the secrets to success.

First, I found out I was using a hammer that was way too light-weight for the task. It was some cheapy I picked up at Michael's – I didn't want to ruin my good hammer on the metal stamps. (See, sometimes I do think ahead!) She also had her bench block set up on top of a sand bag to absorb some of the force. I believe she said it helps keep the stamps from jumping around so much too. I wasn't really in the market to make a large investment that day (after all, I was there for the beads!) so I asked her some questions, watched a couple demos and ended up buying some polishing cloths and a metal hole punch.

So, this weekend, I finally got a chance to test out what I had learned. I ended up using a household hammer and I set my bench block on top of a phone book. (Yea! Finally a use for a phone book! lol) I'm certainly not an expert yet, but I had much better luck after picking up some tips from that nice lady! I really like the hammered texture on the pieces too. Soon, you may just see some pieces show up in my Etsy shop. Maybe even ones with something other than WISH on them!

An overdue update

Wow, I haven't really been blogging long enough to neglect it yet. My apologies... So, in a nutshell, here's what's been going on in no particular order:

Last night, I finished up a custom bracelet order that has been hanging around for a couple weeks. I have to get it in front of my customer and see what she thinks, but I really like the colorful chunky look of it. Lots of different smooth tumbled stones, some agate, some carnelian... a nice mix. And the focal point is a sterling silver oval with the Gandhi quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I picked that up from another Etsy seller, tropacopy. The style is a bit of a departure for me, so we'll see what happens.

Also this past Saturday was the Dixie Heights Band Boosters 2nd Annual Craft Show. They had a great crowd, so they must have done some publicizing. For me though, it was nearly a flop. My excitement turned quickly into disappointment. I was really thinking it would be a good venue for me, but, eh, I've been wrong before. I ended up with one sale, for which I am thankful, but am a little bit in the hole for the day. On the other hand I received plenty of compliments on my jewelry and my set up, which is always nice. And I got a lead on a show from a shopper, who told me she thought my pieces would be great in the upscale setting. Nice!

I had a bit of a shock when I walked into the place and everyone had these massive set-ups. Mine was still small by comparison, but I ended up scrambling the night before to get another table and dressing for it. I still didn't cram a bunch of stuff on them though. Some of these tables I see at shows... it looks like a bead store threw up on them. And yet, they still get lots of sales, it seems. I don't know, I don't really get it. I still think it's better to not overwhelm the eye. Maybe I'm going about it all wrong. lol Okay, I guess I'll add more pieces next time. Sheesh.

A tribute to the bee

I've never been one to try to rid our lawn of weeds. As long as the yard appears green and healthy from a distance, I'm not too concerned about it. Besides, a brown patch is just begging to be replaced by a perennial bed if you ask me. In this world of perfectly manicured and watered, weed- and crabgrass-free lawns, I'm the one out there embracing the blooming dandelions. 

Yesterday I mowed the grass for the first time of the season. We just got a shiny new lawn mower. It's bright red and self-propelled, which is new for me. It dragged me around the yard a bit at first until I got the hang of it. But as I was mowing and looking out for fallen sticks in the tall grass, I saw a glorious site: the first honey bee of the season! Yep, that's right, we have honey bees! And it's because we have weeds – no herbicides here! I happily steered around him. Then today I went out looking for more and managed to catch this guy in the bee act. He was just covered with pollen... and then Caesar tried to eat him. Don't worry, I didn't let him get him. I distracted Caesar and the bee moved on to another spot in the yard. 

The siting made me think of my homage to bees. It's a cute little number called "Busy Bee" made using sterling silver, amber, a freshwater pearl and, of course, a tiny little bee charm. There are a couple pics below, or you can click the link to visit it in my store.