A few new pieces for July

Large bright faceted pink Candy Jade is wire wrapped and topped with a cascade roped sterling silver and small keishi (petal) pearls and topped with a swarovski crystal. length is 1 1/2 inch from bottom of sterling ear wires.

Chunky Freshwater white pearls are wire wrapped with oxidized sterling silver wire and dangle from a detailed oxidezed ring and ear wires. Length is 1 1/4 inch from bottom of ear wire.
*all sterling is oxidized naturally not with chemicals.

Pale lavender Chalcedony is wire wrapped with sterling silver and dangle beneath a sterling silver twisted bead encased with lavender crystals. Lenght is just under 1 1/2 inch.

Swarovski crystals and brass findings dangle from Vintage sterling ear wires.. Length from bottom of ear wire is 1 1/4 inch.

Winter is coming!

Freshwater white potato and rice pearls dangle from a black leather cord to look like snow flakes on a branch. Each section of leather is hand knotted so the pearls will not slip together. This necklace is 66 inches to make a great triple choker necklace, or a beautiful 33 inch double strand Opera necklace! The clasp is a simple loop knot with a wire wrapped chunky freshwater pearl to be slipped through. $35

Here a beautiful pair of White Keishi Pearls and Oxidized Sterling Silver earrings that would make a great companion to the necklace! $30

Visit www.obtp.etsy.com for more jewelry!

Oxidize Sterling Silver Naturally

I've been looking for a way to Oxidize sterling silver 1) inexpensively and 2) an easy process. Here is an article I found by Pat Greer I tried that has both. The first 2 pictures are before Oxidizing and the bottom 2 are after Oxidizing and I thought I would share it!

Boil an egg and peel it. While it's still hot, break the egg into pieces and put it into a tightly sealed container, along with the piece of sterling silver jewelry you want to oxidize.

The container can be glass, plastic or even a Ziploc bag (I've used them all). Just make sure that it is airtight.

After a short while (maybe 15-20 minutes), shake the container around a little to redistribute the jewelry. I've found that if you don't get the jewelry moving around, some of the silver may not oxidize very well.

This method of oxidizing sterling silver may take longer than using liver of sulfur, but it seems to work just as well - and you don't have to go outside in six feet of snow to do it!

If the egg gets cold before your sterling silver piece has oxidized as much as you'd like, remove the egg from the container and pop it into the microwave to heat it back up. Then place it back into the container and seal it up again.

I have used this process to oxidize ceramic beads dipped in silver also. When oxidizing ceramic beads dipped in silver, some of the pieces seemed to bubble if I laid them in the container. So what I do now is string them on cord with knots in between each bead to separate them. This seems to give better results.

Oxidizing Article by Pat Greer