Saturday, October 8, 2011

Etching Photos

I wanted to share my latest etching experience which was done using a D battery and salt water.

Here's the set-up. The positive red wire and alligator clip gets attached to the copper wire holding my two earrings with the hand drawn swirls. The negative black wire and clip attaches to the copper wire holding a scrap piece of copper. A jar is filled with warm water saturated with salt. The two wires holding the copper pieces are put into the salt water.


Immediately you see bubbles forming and gradually the salt water turns a red brown color.


I left the earrings in for an hour, and there was definitely a beautiful etched pattern. Here they are out of the solution. They need to be washed and scrubbed.


Here are the finished earrings below. If you'd like to learn more about this process, please contact me and I'll give you the information I have. It's so easy and rewarding!

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , ,

9 comments:

  1. julie cavenderOctober 9, 2011 at 12:48 PM

    That's really cool. I love copper anything!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RoseMarysClayOctober 9, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Hi Julie, if you ever want to try this, I'll send you the information. I'm going to make a few more pieces this week.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kimbiny@pacbell.netOctober 10, 2011 at 12:02 AM

    that's awesome! and what a tiny set-up, right? doesn't seem to complicated. beautiful results! what did you use as a resist?

    ReplyDelete
  4. RoseMarysClayOctober 11, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    Kim, I knew you would like this! I still plan to use the etching chemicals you left me -- I hope they are still good! The pen I used is a red Straedtler marker. Why don't you send me an email so I have your current address. I'll send you the great article I have.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 13, 2011 at 1:50 AM

    That is amazing, I love how accessible you've made both the tools and the technique. Inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RoseMarysClayOctober 13, 2011 at 8:03 AM

    Thanks for your comment! Are you going to try it?

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 12, 2012 at 10:57 AM

    Nice clean etch.

    ReplyDelete
  8. J. RogersMarch 5, 2015 at 6:23 AM

    Hi Rosemary, if you're still sharing this information, I would like to have it. Thanks for publishing this - it's very interesting, and the earrings are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. RoseMarysClayMarch 5, 2015 at 9:14 AM

    This post was so long ago, but I can steer you to a few sites that will be helpful. The ferric chloride used can be purchased at Radio Shack. I found that StazOn ink pads and rubber stamps really work well....from any craft store. You can look on my Pinterest Etching collection here for some great ideas:
    https://www.pinterest.com/rosemarysclay/etching/

    You will find the following two sites listed there too. Both have a lot of tutorials on etching you can find by searching their sites.
    http://cinnamonjewellery.blogspot.com/2013/07/zentangle-etching-on-copper.html
    http://deborahreadcom.blogspot.ca/2012/07/etching-copper-pipe.html

    Have fun! If you have any questions, let me know.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)