Questions Answered
Sometimes I hear people who work with silver mention something called pickle. What are they talking about?Jeweler’s pickle is an acidic solution, usually heated, that removes oxidation and flux from the metal after it has been soldered. Oxidation occurs on metals like Silver and Sterling silver, causing copper oxides in the metal to show up on the surface of the metal. This is known as “firescale” because it often shows up on the surface of the metal as a grayish color.
There are several types of chemicals that may be used as jeweler’s pickle. Among them are:
Sodium Bisulfate (sold as Sparex #2 and also as pH Down for use in pools and hot tubs)
Vinegar and Salt
Citric Acid
These are then mixed with water and heated. Heating speeds up the chemical reaction.
Because silver and other metals are heated multiple times during jewelry fabrication, pickling removes the oxides that occur during the heating process. Sometimes, if a piece of jewelry is heated too long the fire scale that forms is difficult to remove and must be abraded away.
News of late
Many people may have heard that Vermont has been inundated with rain over the last two weeks and I have been affected somewhat as well. Luckily, most of the issues we've experienced in the last two weeks have been mostly minor and things that we've had to deal with in the past as part of living in a 70 year old house with a cinderblock foundation. If you live outside of Vermont, or just wish to help, I urge you to go to the Vermont State website to find official charities and ways to pitch in. As a person who has experienced fraud in the past, the last thing we need is to have the kindness and charity of anyone abused.Now onto much more fun news:
Now, as I announced in my last newsletter, I became the jewelry studio lead at Generator VT in Burlington VT recently. Someone has actually signed up for help with learning how to solder (technically jewelry soldering is a form of brazing…)
I’m very excited and hope they learn from my help and experience! I will do my best to report what happened in my next newsletter.
In the Works
Honestly, I don’t have much jewelry to sell yet. So much of my time is spent working on other aspects of my business, like marketing/social media, trying to get my website fully set up with all the requisite legal documents, taking photos of the jewelry I do finish and working on new art. Sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming.Some things I’ve been working on since July 5th, 2023:
Digitizing my artwork when people ask about specific designs, so that I can go ahead and make them, or have them sent out to be laser etched in sterling silver (in the works and coming soon-ish!)
Answering peoples questions about my designs (Yay, people want to know more about them!)
Beginning to figure out what I need to set up for a privacy policy on my website as well as some sort of copyright notice and also a terms of service document. It’s all very much necessary, important and of course, time consuming.
Finally, I went to go take a picture with my personal (10 year old?) single lens reflex camera the other day and realized the zoom on the lens was jammed. So no more pictures with that unless I can either repair the lens or replace the camera, which is a real bummer because I use it for pictures of my jewelry, though I also use my phone so maybe it will be okay?
That’s all for now. See you in a few weeks!
Justin