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A
necklace and beads featuring classic Venetian foil and leaf
beads.
The information
provided is intended to enhance your use of precious metal leaf,
foil and wire. Please experiment with different combinations and
applications!
Working
with Leaf and Foil
Used to make
the classic Venetian gold leaf and silver foil beads as well as in
many other decorations. Leaf and Foil are very thin and delicate,
therefore, only sold by the book. Never touch precious metal leaf
with your fingers! The leaf can easily stick to your hand and
anything else it gets on and become impossible to remove, giving
you rather beautifully metal leafed hands etc. Can we all remember
how to sing the theme song from the Bond flick Goldfinger? Hee!
Hee!
Another problem with using
precious metal leaf is that the slightest breeze, even your own
breath, can get it moving about the room. It is therefore
necessary to keep the sheets in the book until you are about to
start your bead. Using tweezers pull a sheet, or partial sheet of
leaf out of the book. Place it on your marver pad. Put the
tweezers on top of part of the leaf in order to stop it from
lifting off and taking flight, then you can start your bead. When
you are ready to use, apply by rolling your bead on the leaf and
then gently marver/burnish it into the surface. Proceed to
decorate, case, or whatever other effect you wish to
create.
Foil is substantially thicker
than Leaf on the other hand and can be handled gently without too
many problems as it is about half as thick as kitchen aluminum
foil. Both however still require careful handling. If not dealt
with properly, gold and silver leaf and foil will burn off in the
flame, (actually some burns in to the surface, while some
vaporizes), therefore it is important not to focus the flame on
any one area of the bead too long. Keep the bead turning in the
flame and only heat as much as necessary to create the desired
effect and keep the bead from breaking.
Silver burns off in the
flame fairly quick, gold will tolerate being left in the flame a
little longer. Palladium is nearly impossible to burn off, making
it the perfect precious metal for the beginner beadmaker. Ultra
thick silver foil is about as thick as kitchen aluminum foil. It
can be cut with scissors, knife or die cut by placing between
sheets of paper and using paper punches. A fun
effect!
Hint: Put transparent very
pale amber, pale lavender, pale lavender blue or rose over silver
leaf or foil to give it a bronze appearance. Other transparents
will give equally interesting effects. Also try placing
transparent dots over silver leaf and then burn off the
surrounding leaf. The dots will look as though they are mirror
backed.
Precious Metal Leaf and Foil
are available in the following forms;
Sterling Silver Leaf,
Sterling Silver Foil, Pure Silver Leaf, Pure Silver Foil, Ultra
Thick Pure Silver Foil, Fine Silver Wire, Fine Silver Strips, 22
Karat Gold Leaf, 22 Karat Extra Heavy Gold Leaf, 24 Karat Super
Heavy Gold Leaf, 24 Karat Gold Foil, 21 Karat White Gold Leaf, 21
Karat Moon Gold Leaf, Pure Palladium Leaf, Pure Platinum Leaf, and
Copper Leaf.
Moon Gold has a pink or Champagne
tone.
Palladium is a warm silver in color that when
heated in a gentle flame will begin to change to metallic
iridescent peacock blues, purples and greens. Increase the flame
heat and palladium will return to a warm silver color. The colors
are further enhanced during annealing. Palladium is nearly
impossible to burn off the surface of the bead, making it the
perfect precious metal for the beginner beadmaker.
Copper
leaf creates an interesting effect. When it is applied to
the bead at first it will appear to actually burn off like paper.
It chars, and floats off the bead. However some of the copper is
applied to the bead. Continue to heat the bead, eventually you
will see a beautiful green color, reminiscent of the verdigris on
a copper or bronze item left in your garden. A stunning effect
mixed with other metals.
Please be safe when burning or
fuming precious metals! Use pure metals whenever possible.
Only fume with adequate ventilation and proper instruction. It is
necessary to wear a respirator with filters for fumes while doing
these processes: Burning and fuming metals create metal oxides in
the air, and can lead to heavy metal poisoning. Read more on how
to be safe in the Flameworking Safety
Info.
Using Fine Silver
Wire
The
information provided is intended to enhance your use of fine
silver wire. Please experiment
with different combinations and
applications!
Fine silver wire is pure
silver, it can be embedded in, or applied to your
beads.
1) For this process try 20
gauge wire. Form the wire into shapes (such as spirals) with wire
working tools. Heat an area of the bead then pick up the form with
tweezers and place into the hot area, then case. Don't work the
entire bead to molten hot or you might heat the silver enough for
it to bead up even though it is cased. For this process you can
also use sterling silver, gold, gold fill and copper
wire.
2) Be sure to use fine silver
not sterling silver wire for this process. Tiny beads of fine
silver wire can be embedded in or applied to the surface of your
beads. For this process, use wire 22 gauge or higher, I like 28
gauge. Cut an 8-12 inch length of wire. When your bead is ready,
heat the bead, not the wire, and bring the wire into the flame
touching the surface of the bead. The wire will melt, ball up and
apply itself to the bead surface. Fine silver wire can be left on
the surface of the bead or cased. Do not marver the fine silver
wire "beads" into the surface of the glass. This can cause tiny
broken inclusions around the wire and could potentially break the
bead. Be sure to hold the wire all the way at the end opposite the
one you are heating. The wire melts quickly, and the heat travels
along a few inches of the length. You may find that holding the
wire with a pair of hemostats, pin vise or tweezers will make you
more comfortable during this process. Be careful not to get tiny
"beads of silver on your torch head. If you do, turn off the torch
and clean immediately! The best way to avoid this problem is to
remember to heat the bead, as you attach the wire rather than the
wire. Also be certain the wire is touching the bead.
3)Another fun way to work
with fine silver wire is to heat the glass bead, then wrap the
wire firmly around the whole bead, and then heat. The embedded
wire will "bead" up as you heat the glass bead.
Please be safe when burning or
fuming precious metals! It is necessary to wear a respirator with filters for fumes while doing
these processes: Unless metals are completely pure as with 24
karat gold and fine or pure silver, burning and fuming
metals create metal oxides in
the air, and can lead to heavy metal poisoning. Read your
Flameworking Safety Info.
Fuming
with Precious Metal
The information provided is intended to enhance
your use of leaf and foil. Please experiment with different
combinations and applications!
Precious Metal Fuming can be achieved using a borosilicate
glass rod, with gold or silver leaf, foil or wire as well as gold
fill wire.
1) Warm a 1-inch length at the end of a borosilicate glass
rod, then roll the warm end in a sheet of gold leaf, silver foil
or leaf. Be sure to marver the metal into the glass rod. At this
point you can set the rod down for later use. When your bead is
ready, pick up the borosilicate rod and place into the flame right
at the tip of the jets, With your bead high in the flame, heat the
area you wish to fume. At the same time rotate the borosilicate
rod while making sure to keep it right at the gas jets. You should
start to see a green haze in the flame. This is the metal fumes!
They will wash onto the bead creating different effects depending
on how long the bead is fumed, if you case the bead, leave the
fuming on the surface or if you apply only to certain areas or the
entire surface of the bead. Gold generally creates a ruby to
bright intense metallic gold color. Silver turns a khaki to
mustard color.
2) Cut wire into 3-4 mm lengths. Proceed as above
substituting the wire bits for the leaf,
Make sure the wire is slightly embedded into the glass rod
so that none of it falls off and goes into your torch. Experiment
with fine silver, sterling silver, various karats of gold, and
gold fill wire.
3) Additionally, leaf and foil can be applied directly onto
the bead and "burned", initially this happens by accident, when
the result we want is the shiny bright metal. However, amazing
affects can be created using this technique, I have been doing
this process to all of my beads for nearly ten years. Try this
process on ivory, white, amethyst and cobalt to name just a few of
the best colors. Apply to some areas of the bead leaving the color
beneath showing in some areas. As you burn the applied metal some
of the fumes from it wash onto the exposed color creating an
almost opalescent, milky blue haze. This affect will vary based
on; the color of glass you use, the combination of metal, how long
you heat the bead, and depending on if you leave the metal exposed
or case the bead. Additionally try adding reduction frit to the
bead. Be careful when reducing, the metal on the bead helps the
process along quite well and you can very easily over do
it.
Please be safe when burning or fuming
precious metals! It is necessary to wear a respirator with filters
for fumes while doing these processes: Burning and fuming metals
create metal oxides in the air, and can lead to heavy metal
poisoning. Read more on how to be safe in the Flameworking Safety
Info.
Ó
2000 Kimberley Rosaleen Osibin
To
contact Kim call 415-259-7626 or e-mail kim@flameworkedbeads.com
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