How well will it take a traditional liver of sulfur
iridescent patina? Yeah, yeah, I know the purpose of it is to have
the bright silver color, but I'm intrigued with the possibility of
combining the wild colors of iridescent patina with the bright silver
color. Can sterling and AS be combined, perhaps, since it will still
be .925? Can you forsee any problems with soldering and heat
treating?
Thank YOU, Katherine, for your enthusiasm, and willingness to
experiment! I definitely do think there are some interesting patina
possibilities with Argentium Sterling Silver. It DOES take on the
lovely iridescent colors of liver of sulfur, though it DOES seem to
need a stronger solution, and take longer. I have not experimented in
this area much----there is plenty still to be discovered! For
instance, I DID notice, the other day, when I heat hardened a
bracelet in my oven, that the parts that had been annealed multiple
times stayed nice and clean. The part that I had done a lot of
"clean up" using rubberized abrasives and 3M bristle wheels, however,
turned a rather lovely shade of green! I admired the green, and then
pickled it clean, but I think that there are some interesting
possibilities----for instance, one could experiment with patina on
Argentium that has been heated to really build up the protective
germanium oxide vs. freshly abraded and scrubbed metal. Each will
patina differently, I am sure.
Cynthia Eid
http://www.cynthiaeid.com