Earrings Etched Silver Japanese Design Gold Interlocking circles
Earrings Etched Silver Japanese Design Gold Interlocking circles
Etching is a fun, but time consuming process. You start out with sheet silver. You choose your pattern, and print it on special paper. You burnish the design on to the heated metal and then peel off the paper. The silver sheet is then floated on an acid bath. The exposed metal gets etched with the selected pattern. The metal is neutralized in a bath. The blue paper is scrubbed off with a solvent.
This is from my Japanese design book. After sawing both earrings out with a jeweler's saw, they were filed, sanded and the edges were refined till they were smooth. I heated them several times to allow the pure silver to rise to the surface. I burnished 24K Gold Foil onto parts of the design, a process called Keum boo. I painted parts with patina for definition and color.
Dimensions: 1 and 1/2 inches X 1 and 1/4 inches. Sterling silver ear wires. These can be changed to comfortable sterling silver clip ons for an additional charge.