oxidizing silver - liver of sulphur

I previously tried to oxidize using the egg method, which was fairly successful but a bit time consuming and fiddly.

So I bought some Liver of Sulphur to have another go, the 'proper' way.
I am pleased to say that although it was very smelly it took about 5 minutes, instead of a few hours, and the results were great.

Items before:











Mix about 5 drops of liver of sulphur into a medium sized jam jar and mix well. Drop the pieces in and keep an eye on them til they get to the patina you'd like. They will drop to the bottom of the jar.









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I have a feeling I will be oxidizing more and more in the future. I love the look it gives.
I did this in the bathroom with the window open but it can be very very stinky so its probably best to do it in the garden. Also make sure you pour the water down an outside drain if you can, because otherwise the smell lingers in the sink drain for days and days.

oxidizing silver - with eggs

So I had a go at oxidizing silver at the weekend. The total stingy person in me couldn't bear to put eggs on nice sterling silver but I tried it anyway!
I tried it with a couple of hard boiled eggs with two pairs of earrings, using this technique here

The victims:













The process:

Two hard boiled eggs, boil for about 15minutes.
Get a couple of sealable bags and put a pair in each, bash egg lightly with a wooden spoon or a small cup. Making sure the egg yolky goodness gets on to the metal. Til it looks like this:














I left mine in for about 3 hours, turning every hour or so and squishing the egg yolk closer around the earrings a bit more.
The findings - headpins and jumprings - oxidized quite quickly but the earwires were more of a pain and didn't really oxidize black.

Finished result:














Not bad for a first go, but I think I will try to source different earwires next time to get a better patina. The rest of the findings came out really well so I'm pleased with those.