I spent two days of work on a fairly elaborate jewelry project this weekend. Overall, I’m pleased with how it turned out, but… well, it was a learning experience.

Metalsmithing geek talk follows:

The 24″ chain is made from 14 gauge silverplated copper wire, forged, shaped, and soldered, with a spiral “S” clasp. The earrings are made from 18 gauge silverplated copper wire, forged, shaped, soldered, with sterling post earrings and carnelian pebble drops.

The soldering went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would. The finishing – both prep before soldering, and filing/fishing post-soldering, was super time consuming and very messy. I may never get that black copper dust out from under my fingernails.

Here’s what I wish I’d known then:

Lesson 1. If you’re going to forge metal, don’t use silver plated wire, use solid sterling wire. By the time I was done working with it, the surface was mostly copper, as silver plate is a thin sheath of silver over a copper base.

Lesson 2. There is a way to de-plate a surface that has become electroplated with copper – a mix of half and half acid pickle and hydrogen peroxide. This doesn’t work when your metal IS mostly copper, and instead, seems to draw the copper to the surface more aggressively.

Lesson 3. When hammer-forming small chain links, hold them in place on your forming plate with pliers or tweezers, not fingers. I have the blood blister on my index finger to show for this one.

Lesson 4. Liver-of-sulfur, an aging/patinating agent, can go bad. When the dry stuff looks like little chunks of concrete and it won’t dissolve, it’s bad. It won’t blacken metal appreciably. It’ll still stink though!

So, when all is said and done, I’m happy with the chain, it’s a very cool look. I would not ever put this much work into it again, though, unless I was working with solid sterling or karat gold.