How to Oxidize Silver and Copper Jewelry with Liver of Sulphur

Look at the color of that silver! Blackened to perfection. I neglected to take a picture of the before, but everyone knows what shiny white silver looks like right?

I am a bit of a jewelry magazine junkie so I know that wire wrapping has been a popular topic in the past couple of years. You have probably admired gorgeous patinated jewelry and wondered how that's done. Well read on and I'll tell you how I blacken silver and copper.

Liver of Sulphur is a chemical you can buy from a jewelry supply vendor (I get mine from Lacy and Co. in Canada). It's a little stinky, like rotten eggs so make sure you use it in a well ventilated area.

When you open the jar, you will see sharp lumpy rocklike chunks. Before I knew what it looked like, I had always wondered so I took a picture for you, dear reader.

Here are the steps I use to oxidize silver and copper.

1. Put a pea-sized chunk in a glass bowl that is big enough to hold the item you wish to oxidize. Break up a bigger piece if necessary by smashing it with something hard.
2. Fill the bowl with hot tap water.
3. Use a plastic or wooden implement to mix the solution until the liver of sulphur is dissolved.
4. Place your item in the hot water solution and leave it there until it darkens to your satisfaction. The longer you leave it, the darker it gets.
   
5. Take your item out of the solution and rinse it well with water. I use hot water and then cold when I rinse.
   
6. I flush the solution down the toilet when I no longer need it. I always make up a new solution when I oxidize. I don't know what happens if you try to reuse the solution but the chemical is so inexpensive I have never looked into reusing it.

*Always remember to use gloves whenever you handle any kind of chemical

That's it!

Here are some additional tips:

• Oxidizing seems to work better if you can keep the solution hot. I use a coffee cup warmer under my glass bowl.
• Oxidizing wire beforehand is a great time saver and has no effect on the finished jewelry in my opinion.
• Polishing your finished oxidized jewelry creates depth; the crevices remain dark, while the shininess of the raised polished parts of the piece add extra interest.
• Using a tumbler to polish is another great time saver that imparts a beautiful shine not easily accomplished when hand polishing.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Next tutorial: Tumble-polishing your oxidized silver jewelry.

Resources mentioned: Lacy and Company Online Store : Jewellery Tools and Supplies

Working with Copper

I think copper is a lovely material to work with. It is malleable and easily worked, can be oxidized, and is relatively cheap! When it comes to ease of working and hardening, sterling silver is my first choice, but when it comes to price and workability combined, copper can't be beat.

Here is a somewhat amateurish photo of a pair of earrings I made from copper wire, copper sheet, and a glass bead. I cut copper into squares, embossed them with a stamp, domed them on a doming block, and pierced them with a drill.

The dangles were made from 18 ga copper wire. I balled the ends with a torch, and hammered them flat. The ear wires were handmade from 20 gauge copper wire.

The picture to the right is what I really wanted to show you. This is a closeup of one of the hammered and embossed squares of copper sheeting. Look at that patina! I acheived this using a liver of sulphur bath, sanding down the edges of the sheet to round then and expose the shiny red of the copper underneath, and then I tumbled them in a cheapie rock tumbler made for kids, with stainless steel shot and and a little water and dish soap for 2 hours or so.

How cool is that!

Check back again for more about how to use a tumbler and why you would want to.

Cheers, Christine

Are People Saying You Should Sell Your Jewelry?

I think most people who sell jewelry fall into this category. Does this sound familiar, "You made that?! You should sell these!". I heard this for a year before I stated selling my stuff. Of course it is a lot harder than it sounds.

Here's another really good e-book with lots of good info for jewelry makers and wanna-be-jewelry makers.


I bought this one solely for the info about how to wholesale your jewelry and i found the info really great. (Not that I have time right now to really go into wholesaling. With a two-year-old and a four-year-old I barely have time to go to the bathroom some days. Someday though- I have a long-term plan mostly involving the kids being in school).

The focus of this book is on the how-to and day-to-day running of a jewelry design business but if you are looking for info on how to make jewelry, it has some pretty good info about how make jewelry too.

A really good read if you are thinking about whether or not you should start selling and how to go about it.

I am a big fan of e-books (can't you tell) because you don't have to leave your home to buy them, a great thing if you have small kids, and they invariably have a 100% money-back guarantee. If you have never bought an e-book, you should try it out.
If you want to check out this one, click on the picture of the book.

If you only have the money for one e-book right now though, go for the David Weiman one. If you haven't read that post yet, read on below.

Christine

Sterling silver oxidizing tip

Jewelry makers often use liver of sulphur to oxidize their silver jewelry. This tarnishes the silver which can then be polished. The tarnish stays in the recesses and the polished raised parts become more distinctive. Here's an example of what I mean:

See how the silver is shiny in the outer parts of the wirewrapping? The dark inner parts contrasting with the polished lighter parts give the piece more definition and add an antique-y quality to your jewelry.



Here's how you do it:
Ok, so here's what you do if you want to try this technique without trying to hunt down the liver of sulphur and shelling out.

You can oxidize sterling silver with a boiled egg. Chop up a boiled egg and place it in a baggie with your silver for a few hours or until the silver has darkened to your liking. It will turn yellow yellow then pinkish purplish bluish, then greyish blackish. Wash off the silver with soapy water and you are ready to go. The sulphur in the egg yolk causes the reaction. Don't freak out because your jewellery or wire has turned black if you do this! This is a good thing. Just shine it up with some steel wool and/ or a polishing cloth. This technique is not very cost-effective in quantity but is great in a pinch.

Coming soon: how to oxidize silver using liver of sulphur

Wire gauges 101

When I first started using wire in my jewelry I found the whole gauge thing so confusing. I searched books, the internet, and magazines for info to try to piece together what to use for what purpose.

Here's my wire cheat sheet:

What do the terms mean?

Gauge: The gauge is the thickness of the wire.

14 gauge: 1.65 mm in diameter -

• for clasps, thick jump rings, chain maille jewellery, neck rings, bangle bracelets, substantial formed links, eye pins for beads with very large holes

16 gauge: 1.3 mm in diam. -

• for clasps, thick jump rings, chain maille jewellery, neck rings, bangle bracelets, substantial formed links, eye pins for beads with large holes

18 gauge: 1.0 mm in diam. -

• for more delicate clasps, jump rings, formed links, eye pins, head pins, wire-wrapping, fits through most bead holes, also good for making ear-wires, though 20 gauge is more common. I like 18 gauge myself, but I also use 20 gauge for making earwires.

20 gauge: 0.8 mm in diam. -

• for jump rings, delicate formed links, eye pins, head pins, wire-wrapped links, split-rings, fits through most bead holes. Also good for making earwires. For more about earwires, see Lara's comment below. Thanks Lara!

22 gauge: 0.65 mm in diam. -

• for wire-wrapping, wire-wrapped head-pins, eye-pins, fits through almost all bead holes

24 gauge: 0.5 mm in diam. -

• standard size for wire-wrapped bead links and head pins, wire-wrapping, fits through all but the smallest bead holes. Semi-precious gemstone beads and pearls often have smaller holes than other beads. This gauge fits through almost all of these.

26 gauge: 0.4 mm

• for wire crochet, wire-wrapped bead links and head pins, wire-wrapping, fits through all but the smallest bead holes. Semi-precious gemstone beads and pearls often have smaller holes than other beads. This gauge should fit through all of these.

28 gauge: 0.32 mm

• for wire crochet, wire-wrapping, wire-weaving.

Temper: The hardness (or softness) of the wire

Dead-soft:

• refers to wire that has been annealed (made softer by heat) and is very easy to bend with your hands or with tools. I prefer this temper to half-hard because I find it much easier to work with. This temper can be hardened (called work-hardening) by tapping it with a nylon or rawhide hammer, or squeezing it between nylon jaw pliers. It can also be work-hardened by hitting it on a steel block or anvil with a chasing hammer or a regular hammer. This will flatten the wire though (this is called forging - it give clasps, links, and jump rings a really nice, finished look).

Half-hard:

• refers to wire that is harder and more rigid than dead-soft. It can still be worked, but takes more effort and skill. It is more rigid and snaps more easily. Some prefer half-hard to dead-soft because it makes for a stronger link. This temper is too hard for wire-wrapping (except for maybe the 26 or 28 gauge).

Full-hard:

• this wire is quite hard and rigid and does not bend easily. This temper is too hard for jewellery-making.

Wire Shape: refers to the shape of the diameter of the wire

Round: regular wire (end looks like a circle)

Half-round: flat on one side of the wire (end looks like a like a half-moon)

Square: 4 equal flat sides (end looks like a square)

Triangular: 3 equal flat sides (end looks like a triangle)