Tips and Corrections

I tell my students what I know at the time. Unfortunately, over time these things change. Here’s where I add new information, correct myself or just list useful tips.

Liver of sulfur – don’t use hot water – for years I’ve been telling my students to mix liver of sulfur with hot water. This is something I picked up from jewelers that I know. Now I read that you should mix it with warm water, if the water is hot it can give off dangerous fumes. I sometimes still see newer books calling it a “safe” patina for copper and silver, although most books warn not to allow the mixture to boil. But I now mix a very small piece of liver of sulfur in warm water (a hot bath temperature), and dip my work in the mixture, in hot water, and back in the liver of sulfur mixture. If your metal is coloring too fast, add more water to the mixture, or dip it in cold water to rinse. It’s also helpful to use a covered dish or keep a piece of plexiglass around that can be laid across the top of the container. This helps keep down those awful fumes a little.

Ball peen hammer sources – For riveting it’s important that your ball peen hammer be very smooth. A rough ball or face won’t shape a nice looking rivet. I used to suggest the small ball peen hammers at Orchard Supply and Rio Grande. Now they are very rough and need polishing to make good riveting hammers. There are several alternatives. Micro Mark has nice ball peen hammers. Unfortunately they don’t have a brand name on them, just a tiny “India” on the handle. Search on the key words "ball peen." Or, you can get a chasing hammer from many jewelry suppliers, but they are more expensive. In general I think any hammer advertised to “drive your steel tools” is going to be too rough.

Cheap flex shaft – I have been recommending the dremel moto tool as a relatively inexpensive way to drill holes. Now there is an economical flex shaft that looks like a good alternative.

Make lots of tests, samples, dummies, maquettes, whatever you call them. There are two good reasons for this. If you dive right in and make a mistake on an almost-finished piece, it can cost lots of time. And when you feel free to experiment, instead of thinking you’re making a finished product that has to look good, you might discover something interesting. It could be a new texture, color combination, or a way to use materials that you hadn’t thought of before. Take good notes so you can repeat your successes.

My textures book has samples of experiments I have done on metal. It's bound together with a ball chain so I can easily add more pages. You can see, on page 2, my efforts at fusing silver to copper. It was an unsuccesful test, but I might someday want to duplicate that look. And it's possible to forget that you've done something, and these records keep you from having to repeat the same test over and over.