Saturday, July 10, 2010
Fun with Rejects
Every jeweler has a box of castoffs- so many things can and do go wrong in enameling, that I'm actually surprised my box isn't bigger. Sometimes the color was bad or cloudy, or I over-ground it, or it just didn't work out. I've decided to give them a nice, long soak in acid to remove the enamel. I use Etch-all, which will only dissolve the glass and leave the silver untouched. I can also reclaim the 24k gold wire from two of the rings I made, which makes it all worth while. The silver settings can be reused, or I can send them in as scrap.
The Etch-all, being that it's meant to just do a light etching in glass, takes a really long time to actually remove all the layers of enamel. But it's not a bother, because it's super easy. I put these in a couple of days ago, and once or twice a day, I'll give the pot a stir. We are about halfway there...