Silver, Copper and Gold Leaf

[SilverRiverJewelry]

I am so confused. I am new which is probably why lol! I have read threads where you apply silver leaf and encase, etc and I understand that. What is the purpose of applying the silver leaf and then burning it off? Can you do that with copper and gold leaf also or not and why would you?

[Anne Londez]

I am not sure what technique you are refering to exactly when you say burning the silver off, but if it means applying it and then putting it in the flame without covering it the purpose is usually to get it to react with the glass it's been applied to. It doesn't really burn off, it melts and get attached in different ways to the external layer of glass. You can do that with gold too, although most people are interested in keeping the gold color, in which case you wouldn't want to burn it off.

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Aha. Are there particular colors or types of glass that work better than others for this?

[j2canoe]

Hi Sonja! I think you might be talking about the application of silver leaf or foil to ivory and then burning it in. This is done so that you may pull stringer from it. This is the mysterious SIS (Silvered Ivory Stringer) that you see references to all over the place. When I first started, I (like many others, I'm sure:) looked everywhere for a place to buy this stuff! Someone could make a killing off of newbies if they sold this!! LOL!! - that is until they figured out how easy it is to make. You can also use the same technique to "silver" other glasses as well for neat reactions. Copper Green, Opal Yellow, and all of the ivory derivatives to name a few. You also can use the same technique with copper (but you need to really work with it in the flame for a long time - much longer than silver) for some neat effects. Try melting some copper foil onto a glob of clear- and work for many moons -and the clear will turn a pretty shade of ocean blue. These techniques are great for organic beads - you just have to play with them until you get something you like! Cheers! Joan:)

[Carolyn M]

There are many ways to use the 'burning off' technique. The beads pictured below use a cobalt base, wrapped in silver foil, burned off then decorated with silver reactive glass.

You can use a number of transparent glass colours as a base and get cool effects

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Thank you! So I can wrap the foil onto the ivory rod, burn it in then pull stringer from it if I am reading that correctly. I am going to have to play with this I can see lol, I love organic beads!

[j2canoe]

You got it Sonya! Carolyn - your beads are gorgeous! :)

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Okay I think I am following so far lol! And yes Carolyn your beads are gorgeous!

So is the silver supposed to turn black when you burn it off? I know that sounds silly but I really have no clue.

[j2canoe]

Hi Sonja! Not really black so much as kind of a funky looking beigey/browny/greeny color when burned into dark ivory. You pull it out of the flame and wait for just a second or two and you will see it develop what looks like a film on it - some call it a "skin". It is ready then to be pulled into stringers. (It won't look yucky when applied to the bead - but it sure looks funky in its raw form!). This stringer gives you the effect that is underneath (the "bed" if you will) the storm parts of Amy's storm beads. It's really pretty. Cheers! Joan:)

[ROC]

Sonja, the things you can do with gold, silver, paladium and copper leaf/foil are HUGE. You may want to look in the tutorial listing, or search on these terms in tips and techniques, and you'll be amazed at what you find.

Other than the SIS, one of the really cool reactions I love is with CiM Hades and silver leaf or foil. Makes the prettiest blues on the bead. have fun!

[bexrox]

You want to make sure you burnish the foil onto the bead very well, because any loose bits will burn off, as opposed to burn onto the glass. You'll see as it is burning, it happens quickly, and the silver basically turns pretty much invisible in the flame.

Good luck!

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Awesome thank you so much everyone! I will have to play a bit I think lol!

[Carolyn M]

Just to clarify, to make SIS you have to heat a gather of dark ivory first, wrap the silver foil around it, burnish with a marver, then re-melt and pull. I use foil rather than leaf, leaf is so thin half of it seems to end up my ventilation system

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Okay thank you Carolyn!

[FishBulb]

Corina Tettinger made a bunch of mini-books in addition to her Passing The Flame book, and one of the mini-books is about using silver. When you "burn it off" it really just melts into the bead and it's not readily visible after that, but it may react to any decoration you put on the bead AND when you're finished your bead you can run it through a reducing flame and the silver pops back out again.

[SilverRiverJewelry]

Okay made some stringers. The first bead I made with the ivory and silver stringer (I used a dark blue transparent) the ivory and silver actually bubbled and wasn't really very pretty at all. The second one I used a light blue and spent more time on making sure that the silver foil was well melted into the ivory and it seemed to work better. I will have to remember the reducing flame at the end!