Etching Revisited

Once in awhile our jewelry fabrication class at Civic Arts revisits etching. I always enjoy it, get all excited about doing more, purchase the material, try it once--or twice, and then put it away for several months. This time I picked up where I left off the last time and this time I added bimetal which I learned to make during Metals Week. The silver on the bottom of this piece is thicker than the copper piece. They were soldered together with medium silver solder and run through the rolling mill.

Copper Soldered Silver To Make Bi-Metal

After flattening  the bimetal piece with a mallet, I applied a design that was printed on PressNPeel paper. The design was a photograph of an ancient Mimbres Valley Indian Pottery shard from New Mexico. I can't wait to place it in etchant and see what happens!

Silver and Copper Bimetal With Print of Mimbres Pottery on PNP Iron-On

Once the design was printed on the Press N Peel paper, I cut out a geometrical design and placed it, printed side down, on a prepared piece of copper. To prepare the copper, I cleaned it with soap and water, scrubbed it with  steel wool, and cleaned it further with rubbing alcohol. Then, I placed the PNP design on the prepared piece and heated it with an iron. To make the design adhere better, I pushed it (burnished it) with a wood tongue depressor.  

Now it was ready to take a dip in the etchant. Dip is an understatement--it was more like a six hour soak. I have decided that it would have been a shorter time, a neater time, and a much better outcome if I had used thinner copper. It took way too long to etch any part of the design. Plain copper seems to etch much quicker than the homemade bi-metal.

Tomorrow I'm going to try polishing some of the silver edges and dip the piece in Liver of Sulfer. I first used Silver Black on it and am not excited about the results. I also think that it would have been a crisper etching if I had just used copper, so maybe I'll try that again. I think trying something new just to see what happens is fun and exciting! What do you think?