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Hello! I've mastered reticulation, however I've seen some amazing silver pieces that look like the silver has been almost melted in layered blobs to give it a really organic look. Its almost as if wire has been melted with a soldering iron to create the piece. Does anyone have any information on how to do this? It'd be muchly appreciated! Thanks, Daisy.
Well daisy, I would suggest you experiment more to introduce variables. For instance:
With and without flux.
Annealing and picking four or five times to create a pure silver surface, beforehand.
Using two torches, one to raise the temperature of the whole piece and one to direct heat locally.
Drilling some holes first.
Adding scraps or wire pieces and fusing those on. Or a combination of these.
Most of us have had a reticulation phase, but in the end move on to another passion. Happy melting, Dennis.
Thank you Dennis, I'll give that a go! Daisy
Daisy, can you add some pictures of what you mean? Or point us at examples? I'm using reticulation a lot at the moment (I do love the process as well as using it on pieces), but am struggling to 'see' what you mean
Attachment 8720
Hi Lydia, hopefully this picture has attached. The star on the right is the kind of look that I'm after. I'm not sure if it's been reticulated or not, what do you think? It has a sort of blobby, rustic effect to it which I have no idea how to create! Unless it's been made out of wax first and then cast..
Not Lydia, but hat's reticulated alright using quite thick sheet, say 1.0mm, and obviously done after piercing. However there is very little control to the process and each attempt will give a different result. Dennis
Yup! Straight forward reticulation - you never know how it will turn out. The most interesting results I have had have been from pieces with a lot of heat/pickle/scrub repetitions and some great results from pre-cutting shapes (discs). Sometimes I keep the heat on with a big bushy flame, then use a smaller hotter flame at the same time to draw the surface silver. It is all good fun!