Silver....foil? Tin foil, silver leaf, silver foil???

[finks]

I have admired beads with little 'silver dots' or stripes and or any other silver addition, on them and had a look round forums to find out how to do it...I am under the impression that you roll glass in foil and make stringer then add it.
However I can't seem to work out what foil to use...some of the information I have been reading is American so not sure if they are using different words for the material!

Any advice adding silver to beads would be very welcomed, thanks.

[Steampunkglass]

Firstly don't use tin foil, it's aluminium and will vanish before you get to the flame! You need real silver leaf or foil, and here again you should be warry of the stuff that's being sold in most art & craft shops as this 'craft guilding metal' is actually colour foil too, likewise is the gold that they sell too. The easy way of telling is proper gold and silver leaf is normally no larger than 3inch square, the fake stuff is about 5/6 inches. The only exception here is copper, which is normally genuine copper leaf!

The difference between leaf and foil is thickness, silver and gold leaf is ultra thin, and is normally used for guilding. Guilders also use what they call 'thick' silver or foil, as silver has a lower melting point than gold it can literally burn and evapourate away before you've finished. I've only really uses gold in beads as I find it easier to work with, (and had a small stash from my guilding days). As for making into stringers, I really can't advise, but would be very interested to hear if anyone else has done that.

Oh, another useful tip, another easy way to tell between fake and real leaf is that real will stick to itself when pressed, which is how you get an even finish on guilding, where as fake will show an edge.

[June]

I prefer silver foil to leaf, it's much easier to handle.  Martin or Q sell the stuff you need, but you do need fine silver, so I would recommend getting some from them and then you know it's ok.

[misspixie]

I've been using leaf - I find it's a bit more subtle than foil, but it depends on what you're aiming for. I think the silver dots you were talking about are fine silver wire, but it's not something I've used before, so...

[finks]

Thank you for helping me understand the difference between foils....now the wire!? What wire would I use, I have some jewellery making wire of differing thicknesses would that work?

[June]

I use fine silver wire 0.3mm thick.  Drangonfly Lynne sells it, amongst others.

http://www.thedragonflycompany.com/othersupplies.html

HTH

[Lush!]

You need fine silver wire (not sterling, that goes black apparently) - I use 0.315mm from www.wires.co.uk

http://www.wires.co.uk/acatalog/si_bare.html

[Shirley]

I don't use wire because I don't like the lines you get. I like silver frit, myself.

[Bumpy Beads]

You might find this useful;

http://gratitude-beads.com/silver.php

Have fun!

[finks]

Wow a great tutorial thank you, all that help is very gratefully recieved and makes the burns I got today (On my stomach from my hot water bottle, was tucked in my tshirt to keep me warm) tolerable!! Ps it is amazing how many people know the dangers of hot water bottles after the damage was done!!

[Steampunkglass]

Excellent tutorial! I shall have to go and play!