Art News, of sorts. | Issue #3

Reticulated Sterling Silver Sheet.  Photo by Justin Heininger  2023
Reticulated Sterling Silver Sheet. Photo by Justin Heininger ©2023

Questions Answered

I was recently working on a new ring for myself during one of the open studio nights at Generator VT and I was using some really old reticulated sterling silver that I had made 25 years ago or so. (geez, am I that old? Nah….)
There was a lovely person who had come in to practice her soldering and looked really puzzled when I showed her the reticulated sterling silver sheet and stated what it was and what I was going to do with it. So I asked her, “have you ever heard of reticulated silver?” The response was a resounding no.

Which brings us to this week's question: What is reticulated silver?

Well, first off, what is reticulation? Oxford Languages via Google says:
re·tic·u·la·tion
noun
a pattern or arrangement of interlacing lines resembling a net.
"the fish should have a blue back with white reticulation"
PHOTOGRAPHY
the formation of a network of wrinkles or cracks in a photographic emulsion.

Okay then. So reticulated silver is wrinkly?
Well, yes!

But how is it made you ask?

Well, reticulation only works on sterling silver, or for those really into it, reticulation silver. You can’t reticulate fine silver. Why? Because it doesn’t have anything alloyed with it. That’s precisely why you can reticulate sterling silver and reticulation silver. Sterling silver has 7.5% copper alloyed with the silver and reticulation silver is about 20% copper.

Reticulation is achieved when you heat up sterling silver or reticulation silver, quench it, and then put it in the pickle. (If you don’t know what pickle is, go here.) Each time you do that, the pickle pulls a few copper molecules away from the sterling (or reticulation) alloy. When you do this over and over, you end up with a very, very thin skin of pure silver sandwiching the untouched alloy in the middle. Kind of like a little sandwich of silver, sterling silver, and then silver again.

Okay, okay, why is all this important? Well, here’s the thing pure silver melts at 1,763°F. Sterling silver melts at 1,640°F. Reticulation silver melts at around 1,520°F.
This means that the “bread” of our sandwiches melts at a higher temperature than the “meat.”

Think of it like this:
1,763°F
1,640°F
1,763°F

Hey! Doesn’t that mean the middle will melt before the outside?
Why YES, yes it does.

It also means that the molten metal in the middle wants to pull together or “ball up” while the exterior skin wants to remain where it is. The result, if you’re really careful, is a wrinkly, textured silver surface. Like the picture above.

Well, there you have it! Reticulated silver. (or more specifically, reticulated sterling silver or reticulated reticulation silver)

News of late

Well, the waters have receded somewhat here in Vermont. I’m extremely thankful that I wasn’t severely impacted. I did manage to have enough occur as a result that I lost a few days of work time. Honestly, if that’s the greatest impact on my life, then that’s probably okay.

I had another open studio this week and managed to do a bit of light maintenance polishing up the rolling mill and adding a couple of little signs saying, “no ferrous metals,” as at one point someone managed to do some light damage to it. It’s still mostly usable, but you can’t use the entire surface of the flat part of the rollers without transferring the scratches to your fine metal, so that’s a bit of a bummer. I also polished up a couple of the hammers they have in the Generator Jewelry Studio.

Last week I helped an absolutely wonderful woman practice her soldering skills. We’ll call her Victoria (not her real name.) Victoria was upbeat and enthusiastic about improving her soldering skills so she could make some earrings. I helped her and then went about other things so she could practice without the specter of imagined experience hanging over her. She was having a bit of trouble. I blame the flux, which looks like it could use a little refreshing. I’ll have to look into that.
In the meantime, I dug out some scrap nickel I had brought with me for her to practice on. Somehow, practicing on materials that don’t have any personal value is more successful than working with something you don’t want to mess up. She started to get the hang of it after that and I made sure she was aware of all the free scrap metal lying around in a big box underneath the polishing station. It all worked out. I absolutely love helping kind, upbeat, enthusiastic people. If everyone I help at Generator is like Victoria, then I’m in for a real treat!

In the Works

What do I have going on now?

Well, I did just manage to get some work done on vectorizing some of my drawings. I am close to finishing up an amulet that I have been working on, and I dug out the old dentist drill I inherited from a great, great (great?) uncle.
The old dentist’s drill is probably about 80 years old. I plugged it in. It worked!!!! So now I have the task of cleaning it up, sanding some of the rust off, treating the rust, and applying some spray paint used for metal surfaces onto it. Oh, and I need to replace the cord.
I could probably find a more modern solution, but I used this particular drill back in the 1990s to carve the charcoal blocks I use for casting runic name amulets and it worked really, really well. Most likely because the drill part you hold is much like holding a pen and it allows for a degree of control that I have never found in a flex shaft tool.
Oh, and I keep procrastinating on wire wrapping techniques to finish up and make “free” necklaces out of waxed cotton for the pendants I make to sell. So now I have to practice that, because I’ve told all of you! Yikes!

Well, there you have it. Until next time,
Justin

 

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