Lately I've been playing around with combining wire and seed beads in my jewelry designs and found this quick, affordable, and nontoxic way to color sterling silver wire and findings. I used to mix up batches of liver of sulfur to oxidize, but that's literally a stinky process that takes longer and leaves you with a somewhat toxic mixture to dispose of later. Plus, eggs are always handy and cheap!
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1) First, I coiled up 24-gauge sterling silver wire, gathered it with a twisty tie, and taped the ends of the tie to the lid of a plastic container. This allowed me to suspend the wire over the egg. You can put the metal right in the egg, if you wish, but sometimes that can result in spots and more clean up. |
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2) Smash a hard-boiled egg in the bottom of the container. There's no need to remove the shell.
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3) Here you can see the steam from the egg that was still warm-using a warm egg helps the process. |
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4) After just 30 minutes you can see the color start to develop nicely. |
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5) Oops, toddler on the loose--guess we'll shake the container and cover the wire with egg after all! |
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6) Time to wash up with everyday dish soap. Since the wire was a nice
color after just 30 minutes, I could have removed it then. However,
since I wanted it a bit darker, I waited over an hour before clean up.
You can always use a polishing cloth to lighten the wire.
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7) The result! Since you're all too familiar with how AB-finish seed
beads show an amazing rainbow of color, I know you'll appreciate this
finished wire's subtle hints of purple and red. Keep an eye out for how
I'll use this wire in a future issue of Beadwork magazine. |
This process is great for sterling silver and also works on copper (but not copper-coated craft wire or gold). For brass you'll need to use patina. When oxidizing crimp tubes, crimp covers, beads, and ear wires, I like to string them on sewing thread and then tape the thread ends to the lip of a glass jar-suspended above the egg. You can also use this thread trick when dipping items in liver of sulfur.
For more information on liver of sulfur and other oxidizing materials (as well as painting and caring for metals), check out Mixed Metals, a book I coauthored with Danielle Fox.
Have fun!
Melinda
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Create fabulous designs featuring a variety of metal beads, charms, chains and findings including silver, gold, and base metals.
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Create fabulous designs featuring a variety of metal beads, charms, chains and findings including silver, gold, and base metals.
Danielle Fox is the editor of Stringing magazine and author of Simply Modern Jewelry: Designs from the editor of Stringing magazine. Prior to working at Interweave, she was an editor at House Beautiful magazine in New York City and an editor at Colorado Homes & Lifestyle magazine in Englewood, Colorado. She has done freelance writing for The Denver Post, The Boulder Daily Camera, Natural Home magazine, Footwear News, and Boulder magazine. Danielle lives in Longmont, Colorado.
Melinda Barta is the editor of Beadwork magazine and the former projects editor of PieceWork magazine. She frequently appears on television demonstrating craft techniques and has been a guest on the DIY Networks Uncommon Threads and DIY Scrapbooking shows, the Style Networks Craft Corner Death Match, and the PBS show Beads, Baubles, and Jewels. She is the author of Hip to Stitch and Custom Cool Jewelry (both from Interweave), as well as the teacher in the Bead Fest Video Workshop Custom Collage Charms (Interweave). Melinda has a BFA degree in fiber arts and a minor in apparel design from Colorado State University. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.