New Items For the Shop

Good Morning,
It seems as though it has been forever since I last posted anything. Things have been really busy around here with all the family stuff going on. My grandmother is still in the hospital unfortunately. She is doing a little bit better though and I am thankful for that. We also got really great news concerning my dad's tests. Thank God it seems that the cancer is only on his vocal cords, both his chest x-ray and his neck CT were clear. I am very happy about that as well. We should hear something this week about what to do next. So anyway, in between running to the hospital and doctors appointments with my family, I have been trying to work on getting some new items made.

I finally finished a piece using the etching that I made in my tutorial on electrolytic etching (see the August 31, 2009 post). If you remember the final etched copper piece looked like this:


Well I decided to try etching other materials using this method so I tried a piece of nickel silver. I used the exact same technique as described in my blog tutorial EXCEPT I replaced the copper covered bolts that are attached to the negative terminal of the battery charger with a piece of scrap nickel silver sheet. I was very happy with the results.

My first piece, the copper etching, turned out a little too thin to work with by itself. I assume this is because the copper sheet I was working with was a 22 gauge so I would suggest to anyone who wants to try this technique that you start with at least a 20 gauge sheet or thicker of the metal that you want to etch. The nickel silver sheet was 20 gauge and remained quite sturdy after etching. So I decided to combine the two to make a single piece that would stand up to daily wear. Here is what I ended up with:

I hope to have this piece listed soon in my etsy shop. I have a few other new pieces completed as well. I will post pics as soon as I can get them. Well that's all for now. Hope you all have a great day. Catch ya later.