13/5/11 Perfect Liver of Sulphur Patina (At Last!!!) TADA365 No: 249

After a slight battle with Liver of Sulphur to achieve the perfect patina, here are the pendant and earrings, all three with the same beautiful deep black patina.

I am going to write down my successful method for using LoS gel.

1) VERY IMPORTANT - wear a face mask and work in a well-ventilated area.

2) IMPORTANT - the metal to be LoS-ed must be scrupulously clean before it is dipped into the solution, be it gel or lumps of LoS. I tumbled them, scrubbed them with a brass brush and Cif then a liquid soap and tooth brush and then rinsed them several times. They were super-clean :-)

2) Get your 'station' ready - tub for LoS, water to rinse, solution of baking soda (if you want), tweezers and kitchen roll. I made the gel solution quite strong as my previous 'experiments' had shown me the stronger the better.

3) Pick up the piece and dip it into the solution. Dip it in for a couple of seconds then straight into the water then you can see how the patina is developing. Keep on repeating until you have the colour that you want.

4) Leave the pieces to dry naturally, then rinse them in running water, gently rubbing them with your fingers. Pat the pieces dry and then do whatever you are going to do with them - a green scourer, a satin finish brush, fine sandpaper etc:

These steps worked for me so I thought I would share them :-)

Now they just need finishing off - I can't wait until they're finished.

Done