Combine all ingredients into the pan or dish with foil. Mix until salt and soda dissolve.
Place silver jewelry into pan/dish. Wait 2 to 3 minutes.
Rinse the jewelry thoroughly in water.
Dry the jewelry thoroughly with a soft cloth. Do NOT dry the jewelry with any paper product as this will scratch the silver.
Note: If cleaning jewlery not purchased from Sherry Cordova, beware that pearls, opals, or other items that have been glued into the jewelry may loosen in the hot water. If your jewelry contains glass or other heat sensitive objects, be careful to avoid temperature shock with a sudden pour of hot water. The cleaning process is not recommended for any jewelry that has glued components. Cleaning in this manner will remove all patina off the silver.
Snake chain. Half was submerged in the cleaning solution, half was left hanging out of the pan to remain tarnished
Last week, two friends asked me for the recipe to remove tarnish from silver.
Sterling and Fine Silver Cleaning Recipe
2 Tbsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. salt
Hot water
One aluminum pie pan or a glass dish with a sheet of aluminum foil placed on the bottom of the dish.
Combine all the ingredients into the pan or a dish. Mix until the salt and soda dissolve.
Place silver jewelry into the pan/dish so that the silver touches the aluminum. Wait 2 to 3 minutes.
Cleaning a silver necklaceWhere there is an absence of contact to the aluminum, portions of the sterling silver necklace will remain tarnished
Rinse the jewelry thoroughly in water. Dry the jewelry thoroughly with a soft cloth. Do NOT dry the jewelry with any paper product as this will scratch the silver.
The hotter the water, the faster the cleaning reaction. If your jewelry contains glass or other heat sensitive objects, be careful to avoid temperature shock with a sudden pour of hot water.
Note: If cleaning jewlery not purchased from Sherry Cordova, beware that pearls, opals, or other items that have been glued into the jewelry may loosen in the hot water. The cleaning process is not recommended for any jewelry that has glued components. Cleaning in this manner will remove all patina off the silver.
After I don’t know how many years (more than four; less than ten???) it was time to change the water in the tumbler. I knew the stainless steel shot was fine. Each time I reached into the tumbler my hand came out all sparkle-y silver. The pieces came out of the tumbler fine unless I left them in too long – when they’d start turning black. OK, fine. In order to avoid adding unnecessary work I’ll change the water.
Filtering Water from Tumbler to Reclaim Silver
The setup consisted of a fine mesh strainer, unbleached coffee filters made from 100% recycled paper, and an empty distilled water jug that I cut in half.
So much silver was in the water that I used many many coffee filters to strain the water. I set aside the silver impregnated filters to dry and send for reclamation.
Silver Particle Impregnated Coffee Filter
Once the water evaporates from the jug bottom and the reused plastic containers, I’ll wipe out the silver particles and send those along to the refiner as well.
The large school of fish swirled around us for our hour long SCUBA dive, from the surface to depth and back to the surface
On a recent SCUBA dive, bottlenose dolphins kept a very large school of sardines swirling around us for the entire dive. The school moved around circling at different levels in the water and changed direction in all three dimensions. The amazing experience is something I wanted to capture in a jewelry design.
Earrings sketches made on the beach with recycled sterling silver pieces in process
Sitting on a beach after the last dive of the trip, I drew up some sketches. The sardines and the reflections on the surface of the water, from both above and below, were crudely represented. Originally I was going to use filigree wire to represent the fish; knowing I wanted independent wires, I evolved the design to be made with flat wire which is sturdier when sections are left exposed.
Pelicans diving into Sea of Cortez, frigate and seagulls circling and the jagged landscape
Recycled sterling silver, flattened and annealed for the second time
I knew I’d want to start the designs with flattened recycled sterling silver wire, and that they would need frames to contain the designs.
Gear jig for creating zig zag wire by hand
Zig zag wire would give me the repetitive yet uneven look of water surface reflections. Fitting the wire into the frames and soldering it in place is tricky even after annealing the wire for the 3rd time in this process.
Annealed and unanealed zig zag wire
The zig zag wire needs tension against itself to hold it’s shape and thus becomes a spring constantly trying to jump out of the frame. Soldering the edge of the form into the frame first helps, then it’s another one or two or three tries to solder all the joints together cleanly.
Flattened sterling silver wire becomes frames and fills the frames
Flattened wire coiled up inside the frames makes nice random shapes that can be coaxed into being 3D to mimic the schooling fish.
Annealing again prior to soldering
As with the zig zag wire in the “Reflections” pieces, the flattened wire in the “Swirling Schools” pieces needs three or more annealing steps while going from round wire to the final form.
Layout of necklace to determine how many handmade small square wire jump rings to create and solder on
Finding the balance between tension and annealed wire is tricky with these pieces as well. The 3D swirls have much exposed single thickness flat wire, making the soldering a bit of a daredevil feat.
Side angle of "Swirling Schools" necklace
One of the final steps previously unmentioned is a good clean in an ultrasonic bath to clean off all the filings from the ‘finishing’ of the pieces.
"Reflections" and "Swirling Schools" recycled sterling silver jewelry heading into the ultrasonic bath
When I saw the pattern created on the water surface, I had to take a photo because the type of surface patterns were exactly what I was representing in the “Reflections” pieces.
"Reflections" and "Swirling School" jewelry in ultrasonic bath for final cleaning
Sterling silver earring tree and protective finger mitts
After setting oval white topaz stones in a new earring design, I decided to also set blue topaz and garnets in the same design; and to make a pendant with one of those stones in the ‘same’ design.
So, I treed up some waxes after adding more of the little ball features onto the wax earring form. Adding more was a necessary step, since the four of the balls kept coming off during the wax removal from the mold.
Using a cut disc I’m removing the cast sterling earring forms from the tree one-by-one. The earrings will need to be custom fit for each stone, and the earring backs and pendant bail will be soldered on.
Where it all starts: wax carving and the white topaz
In order to make an 18kt gold version of the white topaz earrings, I am recarving the waxes so that I can minimize the use of metal. The original earring forms were made to be large enough to custom fit different oval stones by grinding away sterling silver to be recycled later. A one mold fits most approach.
The gold wax forms will be custom fit for two specific stones; so I’m basically remaking the earrings from scratch. It’ll be nice to incorporate in wax the things I’ve learned about creating the stone seat and fitting the stone for a nice flush setting.
Soft bracing bag of shotgun shot in an old denim jeans leg
Today I sewed up some old shotgun shot into a piece of an old denim jeans leg. The new ‘pillow’ will be nice to brace things on when I need something that gives.
Three rings set with three different stone setting techniques: flush, channel, and prong.
Three “Bottleneck” Rings set with three stones setting techniques. Sterling silver, white topaz, sapphire, peridot, aquamarine.Tool parts for flush setting small round stones
The steel part was made from a spent flex shaft mandrel. The business end of the steel is the part closest to the handle. Below is the tool put together.
Flush setting tool for small round stones
The first ring with flush set stones was made by carving wax into the shape of an ocean tumbled glass bottleneck. The lost wax casting process produced a sterling silver ring which I molded. The original ring was set with stones as seen below.
“Bottleneck” Ring: sapphire, peridot, white topaz, sterling silver
After making more wax bottleneck rings with the mold, I modified the waxes to produce a ring to which I could add a prong setting. The first ‘real’ prong setting project for me was this peridot.
“Bottleneck” Ring with Prong Set Peridot
The channel set ring below was created from the same bottleneck mold; this time I cut the wax in half before casting the piece in sterling. The aquamarines are set on 2/3rds of the ring.
“Bottleneck Ring” channel set and flush set aquamarines
By creating an organic shape for the channel I made the work challenging for myself. 🙂
As mentioned on May 18th, the flush setting technique for setting large oval stones requires quite a bit of strength compared to setting round stones in the 2 to 4 mm size range.
And, it also requires these special tools made from a finish nail or a flexshaft tool mandrel.
I practiced bead setting for the first time on this 20 x 20 x 18 mm sterling silver box. I’d cast the box years ago just to see if I could, then came up with the idea of setting tiny stones randomly all around it. As they often do, the idea morphed into different sizes and types of stones. I ended up using 2.25 – 3 mm sapphires, peridots, and aquamarines instead of garnets as originally planned.
While I was polishing up the box, I also polished up the white topaz earrings I flush set last month. The larger oval stones require much more force to flush set than 3mm round stones! Below is a picture of the earrings before the sterling silver was polished.
Next: I’ll finish my piranha skull. The Menlo Park Library will be featuring work from the members of the Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley. I submitted four necklaces for the show and was asked if I have any larger work to add. The 13″ tall wire skull outline I started making in Tom Hill’s wire sculpture workshop should do the trick. Below is the 3″ high shellaced skull which was used as a visual guide.
Stop by the library to see the exhibit any time in the month of June. The display case flanks both sides of the lobby entrance sidewalk before the doors; so you can view all the metal artwork 24/7.
Friend, filigree mentor, and filigree master Yehuda Tassa is about to release his second filigree how-to DVD. While reviewing the DVD for Yehuda to give him feedback before the final version is cut, I took some screenshots.
Yehuda Tassa, Yemenite Filigree Master seen in excerpt from his second DVD to be released in 2009
Back in the first few sessions of filigree workshops, Yehuda used to teach the flower project first. Once us intermediate students convinced him, he started teaching an easier project to the new students, and this is now a second project in his workshops.
Below are the first three things I ever created in filigree, years ago. The filler patterns that Yehuda is teaching are different than those in my pendant/pins. And, Yehuda is teaching a bezel setting while I went for a prong setting in all three of my pieces. If the picture of my pieces looks familiar, perhaps you’ve seen the photo before in “The Art and Craft of Making Jewelry: A Complete Guide to Essential Techniques” by Joanna Gollberg, Lark Books.
"Fraternal Triplets" filigree pendant/pins by Sherry Cordova
