Hi All, I have mostly lurked here, absorbing all the wisdom…doing
my best imitation of a sponge. We are trying to solve a problem with
one of our wholesale accts. and have virtually exhausted our own
little network of jeweler friends and tech. resources. So I thought
I’d run this by a larger forum to see if there is something we are
missing.
Most of our designs are done in sterling with a black antiqued
background. We use Midas Black Max for antiqueing. On several
occaisions, we have had peices where the antiqueing has turned a
dull brown color and appeared to “migrate” to out of the background
on to the silver surfaces. In most of these instances we have been
able to figure out the problem: heat + humidity + displaying or
storing items sealed in the small zip bags. We spoke with a rep. at
Rio who confirmed this and recommended coating with either clear
water based laquer or tarnish shield and including 3M tarnish
(anti-tarnish?) strips in the baggies. We tested both products,
decided on the tarnish shield…the laquer did not look good on
satin finished pieces.
Our wholesaler shipped a lot of inventory back to us that had turned
brown. We refinished all of it (nearly a week in process) and coated
with tarnish shield, etc. We received an email this morning telling
us (after displaying at an event this past weekend) that the brown
tarnish has reappeared. I am about convinced that the problem is due
to inappropriate display. They are still keeping the items in sealed
zip bags. We have been suggesting to them that they might sell more
jewelry and eliminate the tarnish problem if they displayed the
jewelry in a more “creative” way. They have been a good acct. for us
and we don’t want to alienate them. They are becoming frustrated
with the back and forth shipping (we’ve done this several times
already) and we are also getting a little frustrated. We haven’t yet
been able to determine definitively what causes the problem for
them.
We have done all the common sense things: bought fresh antiqueing
soln., no cross contamination, ruled out buffing compound, etc.
We are pretty much left with 3 possibilities at this point: 1) The
"baggie" problem. 2) Something reacting in their local (home?)
environment. 3) Impurites of some sort in the casting grain.
We would reallly appreciate any type of feedback/insight on this.
Thanks so much,
Mike Dibble
First of all,