Hello everyone!
Me and my girlfriend just made some silver jewelry that look a
little organic and we thought that putting some gold sheet on it
would be nice. But the problem is how do we stick it to the jewelry
since it is extremely thin? solder? epoxy? We want to put some
reticulation-like texture on the gold sheet by making a ball out of
it and stretching it out to it’s original shape. When sticking in
whatever way we can the gold sheet on the jewelry, how can we keep
the texture? Please help me out!
Benoit Hamel
Benoit, You might investigate the traditional Korean technique of
Kum-Boo. Tim McCreight’s “Metals Technic” gives a good description
of this.
Basically, keep heating the silver piece to tarnish it, then soaking
it in hot pickle, to remove all the copper from the surface. Then,
put the silver piece on an electric hot plate, place the gold foil on
it, and burnish the gold foil onto the silver. (Wear gloves and
periodically dunk the burnisher in cold water to protect your hands
from the heat). The gold foil will permanently fuse to the silver,
adopting the texture of the underlying silver.
It’s easier than it sounds, and a very useful and inexpensive way of
adding gold highlights to a silver piece. You can practice with
scraps of silver and gold foil. Good luck!
Richard Bynum
What’s a good source for gold and silver foil?
JoAnna Kelleher, owner
Pearl Exotics Trading Company
Phoenix, AZ
www.pearlexotics.com
Hi, Richard, I know this is a very old post … as you can see I
have been saving it for future use… I do have a questain about the
process. Does one have to use something to coat the surface before
burnishing the gold to the silver. I hav ealways heard there is a
solution of water and tatagantha gum(sp) or something like that. I
thank you ahead of time for any answers. Thanks, Karen Bryan
Hi, Richard, I know this is a very old post ... as you can see
I have been saving it for future use... I do have a questain about
the process. Does one have to use something to coat the surface
before burnishing the gold to the silver. I hav ealways heard there
is a solution of water and tatagantha gum(sp) or something like
that. I thank you ahead of time for any answers. Thanks, Karen
Bryan
I’m not Richard but I have done this process using only water or
another burnisher to hole the tiny piece of gold foil down until it
will adhere by burnishing. While I’m typing, thanks for the reminder
John, it’s my month to donate.
Marilyn Smith