Silvered Ivory Stringers... Problem

[Vicki.White]

Well I got my beads and beyond mag today... and was thrilled when I saw julie fountain's article (Yes your article Julie!!! it amazed me that I chat to you guys on here and there you are in a mag i'm reading FANTASTIC)
I have been wondering for a few week now how everyone gets that effect with the ivory cuz its stunning... anyway. I learnt how to do it in this article... but I got home and got out my silver foil and did everything the instructions said but i think ive got fake silver foil... as even when I tried for the second time in the very top of the flame so as not to burn the silver... when I pulled the stringer the silver went into black blobs on the stringer...

Am i right that it is fake... or am I doing it wrong? if it is fake... where can i get the real thing for sure/???

xxx

[Lush!]

Hi Vicki 

Thank you!   


Black blobs?  I don't think I've heard of anybody having fake silver foil - fake gold, yes, but not fake silver.  I don't know if there's such a thing as "sterling" leaf is there? I suppose that would go black if there was such a thing.

Are you warming the end of the rod of ivory, and rubbing the silver onto the warmed rod firmly?

[Mary]

It does go grey/blackish on ivory, though if it's sterling (not fine silver) or fake it will look horrid! Try putting some of your stringer on a tester ivory bead, and heat it to let it spread. If it's right you'll get the stone effect.
Or you could test it by putting some foil on a hot non-reactive bead, out of the flame. Real fine silver will still shine on the hot glass, sterling will look black, fake will ball up like plastic.

[Trudi]

I wonder if you're heating it enough before you're pulling the stringer?

[Redhotsal]

You will get a difference if you're using foil as opposed to leaf. Foil is much thicker and you can very easily saturate the ivory with too much silver. Bet that's what it is.
If you have "fake" or sterling foil you will find that your stringer is very lumpy. But if it's smooth and mostly black (or dark olive/khaki colour) then you've swamped it with too much foil.

[Vicki.White]

Nope not smooth at all just in blobs... i've just taken some photos... just uploading them to photobucket now... be 2 secs
x

[Vicki.White]

x

[Vicki.White]

now it has cooled down... it doesn't look black... well you can see what it looks like...

[Black Heart Beads]

Is that ivory? it looks white.

[Vicki.White]

yup, dark ivory...

[hollergrafik]

doesnt look cram enough for DI

[Vicki.White]

  i ordered it from tuffnells. I bought a batch of dark and a batch of normal... it is def dark ivory........

[hollergrafik]

is it rough when u feel the rod?

[Vicki.White]

yeah, bobbly...do you think it isn't dark ivory?

[xtweeksx]

I reckon its either light ivory or if it really is dark ivory you haven't burnished and melted it in enough... I'm going for the first one tho! Your silver looks same as mine... so don't think its that.

Check rod as HG suggested. If you get your light/dark ivory together you can see the difference visually. LI is smooth and looks totally different to DI...

Jen x