Technique?

[ps_bond]

Fusing works fine with sterling, you just have to be aware of the probability of firestain.

[Sandra]

Well 2nd attempt at doing a piece with fusing and reticulation. This time I used a piece of 1 mm thick sterling. I did the process of heating and pickling 4 times until the silver was white after pickling. When it was ready for reticulation I added the pieces I wanted to fuse. I heated the piece, the pieces fused, but except for a bit of melting around the corners and burning a small hole the piece never textured. The strange part is the reverse side does have a nice texture. I don't understand what went wrong? I'm wondering if 1mm was too thick? After the first reticulation attempt and pickling the piece I decided to try heating again to see if I could bring out the texture. All it did was make the hole get a little bigger and the edges a bit rougher, but still no texture. I doubt I will waste another piece of lovely silver on this technique anytime soon.

The first sample I did was .6 mm thick and textured nicely. It was really quite exciting watching the textures form, that is until I burned a huge hole right in the middle.

[Dennis]

Well Emma, you've got it out of your system, for now at least and so did I many years back.

But I am not destructive by nature, so when I see a finished piece, that has had the hell heated out of it and is the result of a series of accidents, I can only think of the care that went into producing a rolled and perfect sheet in the first place.

As for what went 'wrong', I think with the thicker/larger sheet your torch was too small to heat the silver underlying the surface sufficiently.

Regards, Dennis.

[Sandra]

But I am not destructive by nature, so when I see a finished piece, that has had the hell heated out of it and is the result of a series of accidents, I can only think of the care that went into producing a rolled and perfect sheet in the first place.

Yes I think the abuse I put that poor defenceless piece of silver through should be considered a crime.