with the raised edge facing
up. Use a burnisher to gently
smooth down this ridge.
Prepare the finished piece.
Remove copper from the
surface of your finished ster-
ling silver piece and leave a
fine-silver surface by using a
technique known as “depletion
silvering.” (See “Depletion
Gilding vs. Depletion Silvering,”
page 65.) Light your torch and
use a soft, bushy flame to heat
your piece [4] until the sterling
silver darkens from oxidization.
Quench, pickle, rinse, and dry
the piece.
Repeat this process several
times until the sterling silver
no longer oxidizes.
Adhere the fine-silver sheet
to the piece. Dissolve a small
amount of gum arabic or tra-
gacanth gum in distilled water
[5]. A little of the powder goes
a long way: Start with^1 ⁄ 2 tsp
(2.46 mL) or less, and slowly stir
in water. The solution should
be smooth and transparent,
not a sticky gel.
Use tweezers to dip the
fine-silver embellishments into
the solution and then set them
in place on the finished piece.
Allow the gum solution to dry.
You can speed up the drying
process by using a hair dryer,
but be careful not to blow
away any small silver pieces!
The 24-gauge (0.5 mm)
sheet is too thick to be held
in place by the gum solution.
That‘s all right — the solution’s
purpose is as a temperature
indicator, not as a glue. Don’t
clean up any excess solution.Fuse the silver sheet. Use a
soft, bushy flame to heat the
piece. As the temperature rises,
the excess gum solution will
scorch black [6]. Continue
heating until the scorch marks
disappear. Then, while keeping
the flame on the piece, use a
steel burnisher to burnish the
fine-silver embellishments.
Press the burnisher down at
the center of a fine-silver piece,
and then roll it outward to
drive out any trapped air [7].NOTE: Because we are using
a thicker gauge of metal than
is used in traditional keum boo,
you’ll need to push harder withthe burnisher and apply the
heat for a bit longer. Be patient,
but take care not to overheat
the piece, or any previous
solder joins could reflow.After you have fused all the
fine-silver embellishments,
remove the flame. Check to
make sure all the fine-silver
pieces are affixed from edge
to edge. Let the piece air cool.Polish the fine-silver embel-
lishments. Use 800–1000-grit
sandpaper to remove any stray
marks left by the burnisher,
and refine the surface.Adhere the gold foil. This
step is much like traditional
keum boo. Dip each piece of
gold foil in the gum solution,
and place it on top of its cor-
responding fused fine-silver
embellishment [8]. Just as
before, once the solution is
dry, heat the piece with a soft,
bushy flame, burning off the
gum solution.EDITOR’S NOTE: For Ichi-
kawa’s method, torch control
is key. When fusing the gold
foil, use a big, bushy flame
and keep the flame moving
to maintain temperature and3
6
4
7
5
8
no torch? no problem!
I will occasionally swap out my torch with a sheet
of 12-gauge (2.1 mm) copper over the burner of my
(gas) kitchen stove. Using the stove means that both
of my hands are free, which makes it easy to hold and
burnish the foil. I use this method when the piece is
flat and the area in contact with the copper is con-
veying enough heat.A hotplate will also work to fuse gold foil to fine silver.
If you use an electric hotplate, make sure it’s stable and
can reach temperatures of 500–800°F (260–427°C).