Friday 22 August 2008

oxidizing sterling silver

So it's been a while since i left school but I felt like I was doing a science experiment the other day when I oxidized some silver myself. I was getting rather frustrated not being able to find all the supplies I need in the dark grey oxidized silver finish so I googled "oxidizing silver" and low and behold there was an article about how to do it. I thought that the silver needed to be heated to a high temperature but how wrong was I? (in fact i still don't know if heating to a hight temp works or not) All you need is a zip lock plastic bag and a couple of eggs.

Here's what I did.

1/ boiled two eggs for 15mins

2/ put silver in plastic bag making sure no metal is touching ( not sure why)

3/ put eggs in with the silver and closed the bag leaving a small space for the air to escape when you smash the eggs

4\ smash the eggs and close the bag

5/ leave for 30mins or till your silver has turned black, flipping the bag from time to time to get an even patina

Try it it's cool.

Though it's great i can't do it too often because i feel guilty about using and throwing away perfectly good food.

So the Olympics finishes this weekend and I'll be able to get back to a bit of normality. I have been obsessed and boy has it been a good games.

Friday 15 August 2008

A break for the Olympics and visitors

If i had my choice i would be in front of the telly for 16 days non stop with match sticks keeping my eyelids open to grasp every minute of the Olympic games. ( except for the football and beach volley ball) But work and sleep has been getting in the way some what. The first ever visit from two of my bestest friends collided with the first few days of the games too but i forgave them quite quickly.


Lucy unfortunately for her has vertigo but did really well going up the highest cable car in europe to look over the wonderful Mer de Glace glacier (sea of ice) She even almost got to the barrier to look over the edge but I could ask too much. So even though i ve been neglecting my blog and etsy a bit this past week I still managed to fit in a bit of twiddling making birthday presents for my girlies while they were asleep on the sofa after tiring altitude walks( wimps).


We were very lucky with the weather and i had lots of time off from work to be with them and we managed to eat a fair amount of cake and we fit in a couple of nice alpine strolls.

I am absolutely most certainly the olympics biggest fan I get very excited, i love watching sport and i love to see my countrymen winning medals. So I have had a little break from crafting for a week or so but it seems like an eternity. I also had two of my bestest friends in the world come visit me for the first time in 9 years!!! I moved to Chamonix in the French alps when i was 23 so it was nice to have them on my turf for a change.