Sunday, October 12, 2008

Oxidizing Silver

I was browsing the Internet last night and came across a thread ina forum about oxidizing sterling silver with egg. It gave instructions on how to do it~ clear instructions that I, a total beginner at this, could understand. So today I tried it. I wasn't expecting anything perfect, I just wanted to see what it would do. It was fun!
First I boiled an egg in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. Then I put the egg, shell and all in a plastic zip loc bag. I smushed it up with my hands, and opened the bag, popping in six sterling silver headpins. This was what it looked like:







I let the bag with the egg and the headpins sit for about a half an hour. I then took them out of the egg and washed them off gently. Here is the before and after pictures:





The egg did a better job than I thought it would. The result wasn't perfect by any means, but I am so happy to have accomplished this. Working with metal isn't just a little crafty hobby: it's a chemistry and an art. I would really like to get into this art more~ baby steps first. :)

2 comments:

GreenErica said...

Hey! I found your blog through BluewaterStudio! I've tried the egg ozidizing thing too and it worked about the same as it did for you, and it WAS fun! My son and husband even enjoyed it! tee hee!

Jess said...

Thanks for the tip! I'm also slowly adding metal knowledge to my skill set. I'll be trying this next time I need some instead of running out and buying them!