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Monday, June 16, 2008

Link Fest

Funky Finds
I totally dropped the ball on mentioning that Jessica of Funky Finds featured me in her May newsletter.  Jessica is one of the nicest people in this online community, and it's great to have her in my corner.  She's been a positive, inspiring force for me for years.  Definitely check out Funky Finds if you're interested in indie art and craft.  She serves up a steady stream of cute, functional, and just plain awesome wares.

The Caffeinated Crafter
I entered a giveaway on The Caffeinated Crafter and won these amazing peacock earrings!  And, the best part was this ridiculously cute video of her daughter picking my name out of the basket.

Dotty Cookie
Lots of people have made beautiful bracelets from my free pattern for a crochet beaded bracelet, but Dotty Cookie turned it into a headband with awesome results.  She has more pictures on her blog.


Any cleaning tips?
I stumbled across an outdoor flea market a couple weeks ago and picked up this owl pin and pair of peacock earrings.  I've already swapped out the posts on the earrings, but I really need to clean the tarnished bits.   It seems the metal has tarnished a little under the clear glazing around tiny chips in the glaze (like the dark bit at the top of the one on the left).   Do you have any tips on how to do this or what I should use?  I don't even know what to Google on this one.
10 Comments leave a comment


Nicole said ...
I googled "baking soda toothpaste jewelry" and got this:

http://www.answerbag.com/articles/How-to-Use-Toothpaste-to-Clean-Silver-Jewelry/093fdbb2-af77-10ff-24d5-6a4f6620b816
6/16/2008 9:48 AM

Jessica Hood said ...
Thank you for the kind word Alice! I really appreciate your support!
6/16/2008 10:28 AM

Blaize said ...
I really don't know how you should clean those cloisonné pieces, because a)cloisonné sometimes uses silver, but sometimes copper and brass with a gold (or sometimes silver) electroplating, and b)these are modern pieces and might be made of a different metal, and also seem to have a coating or shellac on them from the way you are describing the problem. Here is a thread about cleaning cloisonné, but it's an older piece. Still and all, it might help.
6/16/2008 12:33 PM

Blaize said ...
http://antiquerestorers.com/cgi-bin/bbs/porc/config.pl?read=4201

There is the link I tried to html above.
6/16/2008 12:34 PM

Susan said ...
I found the same as Blaize. It's cloisonne, if that helps any.
6/16/2008 1:12 PM

dottycookie said ...
Thank you for mentioning my headbands! I have a queue of little girls waiting for them ...
6/16/2008 5:55 PM

My husband works in jewelry and says a dip would work but it may help whatever is going on to hurry the process along. So if there's chipping, it may help more fall off. I would be careful. Especially if it is vintage. He tells his clients who want to clean things, letting it age naturally and then cleaning the item, de-values it. It is better to keep it in it's original state.
6/16/2008 8:50 PM

ambika said ...
Those earrings are gorgeous! And congrats on being featured on Jessica's blog. It was one of the first indie shopping resources I can remember regularly reading.
6/19/2008 9:27 PM

Rosencrantz said ...
Normally after silver has been heated or soldered or something you "pickle" it (pop it in a warm chemical bath) to remove the oxides. This is usually an acid sold for the purpose, but I tend to use things like old lemonade, coke, vinegar (pretty much anything that you know is bad for your teeth will do the job perfectly) and they work just as well as the proper stuff if you warm them in the microwave before putting the silver in. I was just wondering if that might work in this instance, since I'm not sure if polishing the oxides off will be possible. Could be worth a try?
6/22/2008 6:49 PM
 
Charm said ...
"(pretty much anything that you know is bad for your teeth will do the job perfectly) "

Funny! my mum told me to try toothpaste for my tarnished silver pendant...didnt work very well (the tarnish is back, grr, but it DID get rid of the tarnish for a while!) you have to use the white abrasive sort, not gel-type.
8/25/2008 10:24 AM

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