30 Art Jewelry ■ March 2016
Prepare the silver. Place a sheet of
heavy-gauge sterling silver on a fire-
brick or soldering board. I used a 1 x
1-in. (25.5 x 25.5 mm) square of 14-gauge
(1.6 mm) sterling silver sheet. Use a bushy
flame to heat the silver to a dull red glow.
Let the silver air-cool, and then place it
in pickle. Let it soak for a few minutes,
then remove it from the pickle, rinse it,
and dry it; do not use a brass brush yet.
Repeat the heat/pickle/rinse cycle
roughly five to seven times. This process
creates a slightly porous surface, which
helps the gold bond to it during fusing,
but it also removes the copper from the
surface, leaving behind a top layer of
fine silver [1]. (See “Depletion Gilding
vs. Depletion Silvering,” page 65).
Set the silver sheet aside.NOTE: Be sure to hold the silver sheet by
its edges after preparing it to keep it clean
and free of grease.Cut out the gold. You can custom-order
24k-gold sheet in 34-gauge (0.16 mm), or
you can use your rolling mill to roll down
thicker sheets of gold to a thinner gauge.
A general rule of thumb is to anneal after
reducing the thickness 50%. While rolling
out the sheet, if you want to change
directions (say, from north/south to east/
west), anneal the metal before rotating it,
or you risk cracking or tearing it.
Use shears to carefully cut geometric
shapes from the 34-gauge (0.16 mm) 24k
gold [2]. Unlike keum boo, the gold will be
distorted by multiple passes through the
rolling mill in a few steps, so don’t cut1
4
2
5
3
6
materials
■ (^) Sterling silver sheet:
■ (^) 14-gauge (1.6 mm), 1 x 1 in.
(25.5 x 25.5 mm)
■ (^) 22-gauge (0.6 mm), amount
determined by design (optional)
■ (^) 24k-gold sheet: 34-gauge (0.16 mm),
amount determined by design
toolboxes, page 77
■ (^) Soldering/Annealing
■ (^) Finishing
additional tools & supplies
■ (^) Shears
■ (^) Steel bench block
■ (^) European dead-blow or rawhide mallet
■ (^) Cotton swab
■ (^) Rubbing alcohol
■ (^) Silicone medium-grit polishing wheel
with a flex shaft or rotary tool (optional)
■ (^) Needle
■ (^) Agate burnisher
■ (^) Rolling mill
■ (^) Textured fabric or paper (optional)
Find out where to buy supplies, page 79
See Safety Basics, page 76
See "3 Types of Torch Flames and When
to Use Them” for an illustrated look at
three different types of flames you can
get with a torch.
http://www.artjewelrymag.com/reference
EXPERIMENTING WITH WAYS TO FUSE SILVER AND GOLD has helped
my work evolve. I like to incorporate patterns, asymmetry, and rich, contrast-
ing colors in my work. Fusing allows me to utilize all of these elements in a
single sheet of metal. The biggest perk of this technique is how far you can
stretch a small amount of gold. By the end of this process, the silver-and-gold
sheet will be nearly four times its starting size! This is a great way to get the
look of gold for a fraction of the cost. This process is done before fabricat-
ing a piece of jewelry, as opposed to keum boo, in which gold accents are
applied to a finished piece. This mixed-metal sheet is relatively easy to make
and the end result can be used just like a sheet of silver.