Art News, of sorts. | Issue #6

Photo of silver chain links
Photo by Ian Talmacs : unsplash.com/@iantalmacs

This week’s post is going to be fairly short. (That’s pretty subjective though.)

With the autumn fast approaching, I am feeling pretty divided between getting some outdoor home maintenance projects done before winter, working on my business, searching for a newer car, and well…life. The good news is that I actually had someone hire me to make a piece from a design I posted about on Instagram in June!

Questions Answered

How can I clean my silver jewelry?

This is a fairly common question that I hear.

While one option is to buy silver polish and use a soft clean rag to clean it up, there is actually quite a neat chemistry-related trick you can use that will remove the tarnish, assuming there is not a lot of dirt and/or waxy residue built up.  Don’t worry though, I’ll recommend a quick clean for that first.

Warning!!!  (and Disclaimer)
While these methods are mostly safe and gentle, I am not responsible for any damage to your jewelry.  Please, please, please make sure that if you have any stones or crystals on/in your jewelry that you look up cleaning instructions that are safe for those materials.  This applies especially to soft stones such as turquoise.

Yeah, I don’t like having to say that, but I must.

So, first you want to gently clean your jewelry.  

How?

You know all those “free” toothbrushes you get from the dentist each time you go get your teeth cleaned? (or get a cheap soft-bristle toothbrush from the supermarket)

Use warm water, a few drops of dish soap (NOT detergent for the dishwasher) and that toothbrush to give your jewelry a gentle scrub with that soap and water.

Now, here’s the cool chemistry part:

Get a glass or ceramic (or plastic) bowl and line the bottom with aluminum foil.  It doesn’t have to be pretty.  You can even just fold up the aluminum foil into a large-ish square and place that in the bottom of the bowl.  As long as your jewelry makes contact with the aluminum foil you’ll be good.  (You can even very loosely warp the jewelry items with aluminum foil, if you want, just make sure water can get in and around the piece of jewelry.)

Now, you want to make sure that you can cover the jewelry with water.  However you measure and determine this is up to you.  One way is to cover the items with tap water and then dump the water into a microwave safe measuring cup (make sure it’s a big one.)  

Write down how much water you used.  Begin heating the water up so that it’s moderately hot.  It doesn’t have to be boiling, just hot enough to make tea.

While the water is heating up, measure out some baking soda.

You’ll need:
Baking Soda
Salt (optional)
Water

The following ratio:
1 Tbsp of baking soda to 1 cup of water.

If you measured a pint of water before, you’ll want 2 Tbsp.  If you measured a quart, then use 4 Tbsp (4 Tbsp is equivalent to ¼ cup.)

Once your water is hot, mix in the baking soda and stir until it’s mostly to fully dissolved.

Now place the foil in the bowl (if you haven’t already) and then your jewelry, making sure it is touching the aluminum foil.

Now, slowly pour in the baking soda and water solution.

Let sit for 5 minutes and check your jewelry.  If it needs more time, just come back and check periodically.

Rub with a soft cloth to dry.

Bonus: You can add salt in addition to the baking soda.  This should help speed up the process, but isn’t entirely necessary.  Just add in the same amount of salt as the baking soda. Used 1 Tbsp of baking soda?  Use 1 Tbsp of salt, etc.

Why does this work?

If you’re interested, the tarnish is silver sulfide.  Using the ingredients listed, you’re creating a chemical bath that changes the silver sulfide (the tarnish) into aluminum sulfide.  That’s the basic explanation.  (You’ll notice a sulfur / rotten egg smell.)

Neat, huh.

P.S.  You can use this method on any silverware (actual silverware, plated silverware counts too) at the holidays, if you have any.

News of late

Oh my, so the saga continues.  I am working on moving my store to a new website provider.  Not much progress has been made, but I am forging ahead like a snail possessed.

Oh, and we had some really hot sunny weather over the Labor Day weekend, so I went swimming and had a few picnics, followed by…swimming!

In the Works

I keep working to make small improvements to the Jewelry Studio up at the Generator Maker space in Burlington.  It’s a slow process.  If you use that space and happen to be reading this, please make requests for stuff you’d like to see and use there.

Also, I was hired to make a pendant version of a design I drew in June!  Yay!  How exciting!

I’ve also been switching my week around and working hard on creating new cast amulets of historical Galdar Stavs found in museum archives in Iceland. 

Well, that’s it for this time!

See you in a couple of weeks!

Justin

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