I was recently commisioned to do a custom Silver piece for a
customer. She requested that it be fully fabricated to ensure it
would be one of a kind (no molds, no factory findings). I was
delightfully challenged, and wewere both very happy with the end
results. The final step in the process was to have parts of the piece
Gold plated. As I do not have a plating system in-studio, I sent it
out to my local supplier who assured me there would be no problem in
plating it for me. When I went to pick it up a week later, I was very
dissapointed in the quality of the plating. It had an extemely dull
finish, and when I asked if it could be buffed out to a higher shine,
they recommended that it should be left as is. Well, when my customer
came to pick it up she refused it because of the obvious low luster.
I know that plating is an extremely thin coat, but I tried to
delicately hand rub it with a piece of natural cotton.
And as you have probably already guessed, not only did it not help,
but it removed the plating completely in areas.
I took it back to the supplier, and they were more than happy to
re-plate for me while I waited. It came back with exactly the same
finish asbefore.
So my questions are… Am I expecting too much ? If not, how could
this be corrected in the plating process ?