Organic Pickle Recipes

Large black onyx and sterling silver stacking ring. Ring and photo by Emily Wiser.

After taking classes at Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco this summer, I've learned a bunch of ways to pickle jewelry. Pickling is simply cleaning jewelry with acid after you've soldered it. In the old, old days, silversmiths used hot white vinegar. Now, we often use sulphuric acid or Sparex. I used to use sulphuric acid. Then, one day, while I had my pickle pot open, and hot, steaming, sulphuric acid fumes were wafting out, a fly flew through this cloud and just dropped dead right out of the air! "Hmmm," I thought. "Maybe this isn't so good for me, either!"

I've been looking around for healthier and environmentally friendly pickle alternatives. So have my teachers and fellow students at school. Here's the alternatives:

1. Citric Acid. That's right--the kind that comes from citrus fruits. It's available in a powder form from Otto Frei.

2. Hot White Vinegar & Sea Salt. This is what I use. Keep it piping hot in a crockpot. It smells terrible, but works great! Just imagine salt and vinegar potato chips and you won't mind the smell at all.

3. Just Hot White Vinegar. This is what one of my teachers uses. She just adds some water to the crockpot when it gets low.

4. Lime Juice. One of the students I met at Revere uses this. She says hot lime juice works fine.

5. Kool-Aid. This is the best one, yet. I know that you can dye wool with Kool-Aid. It turns out you can pickle jewelry with it, too! It kind of makes me afraid to actually drink Kool-Aid. Just mix the Kool-Aid with water (don't add sugar). You'll have to refresh your pickle often. Thanks to Shirley at Etsy for this one.

Sterling Silver Stacking Ring Celebration!

I'm having a sterling silver stacking ring celebration! 9 sterling silver stacking rings for $45 plus free shipping to the U.S. and Canada. I love hammering out these little rings.

Do you want to know how I make these rings? Here's instructions on how to make sterling silver stackable rings!

Materials Needed:
16 gauge sterling silver round wire, half-hard
blow torch, propane or butane
fire brick or soldering pad
jewelry pickle (see my organic pickle recipe) in a crockpot
jewelry tumbler with steel shot and ivory soap chips
silversmith's anvil
silversmith's hammer
steel ring mandrel
jeweler's file
400 grit sandpaper
600 grit sandpaper
jeweler's cutting pliers or jeweler's saw
hard silver solder (you can use sheet, wire, or paste. i'm using sheet solder)
flux
copper tongs

Instructions:
1. With the cutting pliers, cut the length of sterling silver 1-2 sizes smaller for the ring size you want using a ring sizing chart.
2. File the ends of the wire with the jeweler's file.
3. Bring the ends together to form a circle.
4. cut a silver solder chip and put it underneath the ring.
5. spray the flux on the ring or dab flux on using a paintbrush
6. Heat ring with a blowtorch in a circular motion.
7. Wait for ring to cool, then put in hot pickle.
8. Once ring is shiny again, take it out of the pickle using copper tongs. You must use copper, not any other metal tongs, for this.
9. Sand or file any rough edges.
10. Hammer the ring on the anvil horn to get a rough shape
11. Hammer the ring on the ring mandrel to get the size
12. Lay the ring flat on the anvil. Tap it gentle to make sure that it is straight when it lies flat. This is called "trueing" the ring.
13. Put the ring in the jewelry tumbler half full of water and add ivory soap flakes. Tumble for a half hour.

Your ring is done!

Organic Pickle Recipe

I've researched ways to find an environmentally safe alternative to traditional sulphuric acid pickle. I've found that 30 ounces of white vinegar combined with 3.5 ounces of sea salt does a terrific job of cleaning sterling silver, white gold, yellow gold, and rose gold. You put the white vinegar and salt in a crockpot and set the crockpot on high. It should be really hot. It smells terrible, but it's better for your health and the environment.

What does the .925 Mean On Sterling Silver?

The .925 you see stamped on jewelry means that it's sterling silver. .925 means that it is 92.5% silver, with the rest of the alloy being mainly copper. Sterling silver is tougher than fine silver. (Fine silver is 100% silver). Sterling silver works well for rings and for jewelry that needs strength. Fine silver is used mainly for pendants that do not need to be made out of a strong metal.