More about K-etching Up - Electro-etching Copper

I had forgotten about using embossing powder with my etching and decided to try etching with my electric device with it to see if it stayed on longer. It sure did! It was perfect - none of it came off during the etching process! But the powder I used was rather chunky...couldn't find my detail powder for this attempt so I'll have to go hunting for it soon! I lost a lot of the detail because the embossing powder was a little too thick. Or maybe a little too much Versamark ink....

This is how it looked after I melted some sparkly embossing powder on it.

I set up my device like last time and let it go for over an hour this time, checking it periodically. I had to add some more salt because it didn't seem like it was etching much, and it did help.

This is after etching, fresh out of the container. I wanted to show how deep the etch was.

It's a little hard to tell the depth because of how thick the embossing powder is but I was happy!

Then I tried to get the embossing powder off. In another post I was told lacquer thinner would do the trick but all I have is some nail polish remover. It didn't exactly remove it, although some came off and it got kind of brittle. I then found a straight razor blade and used it to scrape the embossing powder off...it came off in big sheets, as you can see from the picture! Whole flowers and lace...it was much easier than trying to remove it with the nail polish remover, I gotta say!

You can see entire embossing powder flowers on the paper plate, to the right.

This is after scraping off the embossing powder, before sanding. It lost some of the detail in the stamp, but I'll do better next time. It was so shiny on the unetched parts!

After sanding, before patina. Very happy with the depth of the etch! 

Glad to know that using embossing powder works SO well! Next time I will find my detail powder, I think it will do a better job of keeping the fine detail in my stamped etchings.

After patina.

For instance...the detail on this one...!

This is the other side of the sheet of copper I just showed you.

The picture above is the result of the last time I etched with my electrical device, using the Stazon ink. If the ink hadn't come off, it would have been an amazing etch! The detail in it is perfect! Maybe when I find my detail powder it will look as nice. But you can see how shallow the etching is...the ink was coming off so fast I just stopped my experiment. But it is still very pretty. :)

I used a different embossing powder for the one below, a gold detail powder, and it wasn't as easy to remove as the glittery, crusty one was. It did, however, give a much more detailed result. It did come off, with some elbow grease, with the nail polish remover...and a razor blade. I guess it depends on the brand. I am much happier with this etch, even if I didn't stamp it perfectly. :) The embossing powder worked MUCH better than the plain ink using the electrolytic etch! It held perfectly onto the metal. I still have to test my setup with some PnP but for now, this is a great substitute.

The edges are rounded, but sharp. It's quite deep!

This final picture is of a piece of my aluminum sheet metal that I tried to etch. In one of the sites I read they said you could etch aluminum with this electric method, so I decided to try it with the embossing powders. I used a Zing purple detail powder on it and let it go in my setup for about an hour and a half. At first I tried using my scrap copper but didn't see any reaction so I changed it to a piece of the sheetmetal. There was some kind of aluminum colored jelly on top of the copper residue (didnt wash out the container very well) after etching for that long and I got worried about some kind of poison gas being released by this so I stopped it. Better safe than sorry! I tried using nailpolish remover on the embossing powder and all it did was remove the purple dye :) so I scraped the melted powder off with my razor blade....you can see the scratch marks in the picture. It does not look actually "etched"...the exposed parts look more "deteriorated" than etched. :D But it still looks kind of cool, right? Thus ends this experiment! :)

Too bad I scratched it up! I may try using a colored pencil on it...

Please follow me here, or on Facebook and Pinterest! Thanks for looking and I'll see you again soon!

OOOOoooo...Shiny! - Resin

As usual, this post is VERY picture heavy! Be aware if you have a slow connection or limits! I have crafting ADD, apparently. I have several projects going on right now that have nothing (or at least little) to do with each other. It's funny how they all seem to be tying together though.

Up until recently, all I used to give a domed finish to my polymer clay pieces was the UV Magic Glos resin by Lisa Pavelka. I didn't like two part resin because I always seemed to get dust on them during the long curing process...whereas the UV stuff cures so quickly there isn't really time for dust to stick...at least if you cure them immediately! But I had made so many cabs using Marilyn's technique I went through a big bottle of it in no time flat! So I decided to give the two part another try.

I used a coupon @ Michael's to get a package of the two part Mold Putty Amazing Clear Cast resin. They have a 10 minute resin there but it seems to be white, not clear. This one takes several hours to solidify, so I cover everything up with paper plates and take out container lids. :D

I did do some regular doming (you'll see those in another post!) but I had also found some molds in my stash for this type of resin, so I dug them out and made some bracelets and shaped cabs. At first I was doing basic stuff, but I found an area at Hobby Lobby where they have tiny items made to go in resin...and then I found that Dollar Tree also has tiny items that are supposed to go on fingernails but work perfectly for this. They also have tiny beads and flecks of glitter for nails that work well, if you are looking!

I saw some examples that used real lace...but I had this mold for polymer clay already so I took some pearl mica powder and put it in some liquid clay and baked it to make this. I didn't add anything to it but I will on the next one!

 I soon got addicted to adding things to it, besides the tiny brass dragonflies and butterflies. I am on a few resin groups on FB (this is where I get all the inspiration for the many things I try, you know! I saw someone who was happy to learn an important tip on one of our groups and she said, "to think, I actually resisted joining Facebook!" Lol!) Some of them are making extraordinary resin items...one extremely talented lady is adding wood and actually putting her creations on a lathe! Some add bugs, or other dead things, but I have some delicate fern in my yard that I decided to dry and use. I like the way it came out with this tiny brass butterfly!

I added a little brass butterfly to my fern in this one.

 My second attempt at this bracelet has more fern. Hard to know how much to add at first!

Then, I remembered the Arnold Grummer Iridescent flakes that I've had stashed forever to use with making my "Fauxpals" with polymer clay and thought I'd try it with this. It is so hard to take a good picture of them, let me tell you, but they look like diamonds, in person!

I added a brass dragonfly to this one. I have a mold with several different shapes and sizes on it that I used with these. I only used them a few times and suddenly they began getting scratches. Not sure why, I am delicate with them except for removing them from the mold. And since one of the members on my FB group mentioned putting them in the freezer to get them out, it isn't so difficult to remove them...well, except for the bracelet!

I got a bracelet mold to use with the resin and love the results. This is one of my very favorites to wear! And on one of my FB groups, I was told that you can fill the other side of the mold to make a paper weight or drink coaster. Love that idea! Once again, mine has tiny scratches in it....I guess I could dome it after it is made, though...

One of my fellow Facebook group members, Dustin Morris, has been messing around with abstract paintings he has shared with the group using resin with paint and alcohol inks. They are just GORGEOUS. They are on a larger scale that my work, of course, but I decided to play around with some ink and some gold leaf flakes that I've had forever. The odd part is, that I put a lot of Wild Plum, a pink alcohol ink by Adirondak, in both of these and somehow it disappears as it cures.  Greens and blues don't seem to have a problem, though.

This one had a few more colors, but once again, no pinks or reds made it to the final cure. I also added some clear sparkly embossing powder to most of the rest of the resin on this page! :)

You can more clearly see the alcohol inks with the gold flakes in this one. I love this one! I think I need to let the resin thicken a bit before swirling in the AI...Notice the Plum made it through on this one!

I got some Plum in this one too...although it might be purple. 

And now, for something a little different! My aunt got me a whole bunch of samples of Formica, because she saw me playing around with Alcohol inks and resin a while back. She actually paid to have it sent to me, so I decided I'd better use some of that resin on them. :0) I have done both sides of these with Pebeo Prisme and Moon and two part resin, and sometimes some inclusions!

 (I have tried to post fronts and backs together.     You can tell hopefully which is which by which way the quarter is facing. :)

This mermaid is a little different from the others. I used some of that flat aluminum bezel wire and shaped it as I wanted, then put strong clear tape on the back and drizzled in Pebeo paints. After it dried for a couple of weeks, I resined it. I still have to do the back, as it is sticky where I pulled off the tape. You can also do this without Pebeo.

These are the copper pipe bezels that I etched in the previous posts. I put tape on the back and then poured resin inside with the Grummer's flakes and some alcohol inks. I just need to solder on some loops to hang them with now.

These were done in a normal mold. I first put in the resin, placed some gold leaf flakes in it, then added the iridescent flakes, so the gold would show up clearer. Then I put some indigo alcohol inks on the left one.

The one on the left has alcohol inks with the iridescent glitter. The one on the right is gold flakes and holographic glitter embossing powders, wire wrapped to a filigree pendant I had.

These were some of the first ones I added alcohol inks to. I then mixed some pearl mica powder to the resin and covered the back with it after they cured to make it white...I thought the AI would show up better, and they did...Pictures of these don't really do them justice! :)

One of my first with AI, I placed that star on the back and for some reason the color moved away from it, leaving this.  I kind of like it. :)

I drilled some of them and used pinch on bails instead of wire wrapping. I love this one with the gold leaf and AI.

Love this one, Clear with holographic embossing sparkles and gold leaf flakes.

Then I got some of these deep bezels on sale at Hobby Lobby and decided to make some seascapes with them. :) I put Pebeo paints on the back and added metal charms. The white "coral" is made from a clay like plastic.

The anemones in this one are made of baked polymer clay.

This is a steampunk dragon! :) Pebeo paint on the back is kind of hard to see....

Pebeo with metal turtle and seahorse, clay plastic "coral".

Last one! Love the way these came out. :)

This is a wire wrapped resin Fauxpal heart. So hard to take a good picture of these!

Recently I went to Michael's and was pleased to find they had a large new selection of silicone molds I hadn't seen before. They must know I was needing them to mold resin in! :D

These are in the area where the cake decorating supplies are.

Closer look...those robots are adorable!

These are for making small cakes and were in a nearby area.

Love the cars...they would make great large resin pieces. It is so hard to find things for boys!

These are for making ice cubes and were in a completely different area.

Also for ice cubes..these were near where they have glass globs for putting in your plants, of all places!.

Well, this post is extremely picture heavy now and I think we're all caught up, so thanks for checking it out and I hope you found something useful in it!

K-etching Up - Etching Copper

I haven't posted in a while because after Christmas cards (another post!) I took a break...I was working with resin a lot before that and it was too cold in my house to use it. I've been doing other things, like some wire wrapping but haven't made much other wise. Then in March I had some health issues and so things are still not back to the way they were...but I am slowly getting better and getting back to making stuff. Mostly wire wrapping cabs I already made, but wanted to do some more etching too...

So I started etching copper sheeting and thought I'd share the results again. You can read about my previous experiences (with hydrogen peroxide, salt and vinegar, even!) on a couple of previous posts...links to them should be on the right side of this page, at least on a computer! I've tried all the different ways I know of, now, except using PnP paper...which, apparently, is the only way you can get a good etch on copper with saltwater and electricity! Although mine wasn't entirely a waste of time! You be the judge!

If you've followed this blog, you know I am a relative newbie to etching, so I decided to try some techniques from other blogs. The first one was this Insructable, where they explained how to use a soft roller and a baggie - and which only uses about an ounce of ferric chloride for your etching project! Since I had only gotten two uses from my last $13 bottle of it, I decided to give it a try and was very pleased with the results. It is not a DEEP etch but was really nice. I will definitely get a lot more uses out of the etching solution this way! (Sidenote: Found a great way to dispose of the old solution quickly: I put some scrap aluminum sheet (leftover from my other projects, sheet metal from Home Depot, 10 5"x7" sheets for less than $3) in the container with the used solution and it solidified overnight! I would still take it to a disposal site but it is much easier to transport!)

Here are my supplies...baggies, foam paint roller, ferric chloride, copper...The two sheets on the left are thinner metal than the one on the right. Somewhere is the lemonade Kool-aid I used to make my Edinburgh etch..couldn't find citric acid. :)

I have learned from other blogs that it is a good idea to stamp your images and let them dry for over 24 hours, so I did that with the Stazon and a plain rubber stamp. I was worried about rubbing off the ink with the rolling action but it held up pretty well.,.although it came off very easily when I was done! I also used stickers and they held up well, too, surprisingly. The directions I followed on that Instructable are actually in the comments, not the main post! The main post was more about circuit boards but the post I used was by Mr. MM, about halfway down in the comments, the Edinburgh etch method. I did not have a soft rubber brayer but remembered my foam paint roller and used that to press the solution over the metal. It took about 45 mins total, probably half the normal time I did it last time I tried etching. The thinner metal took less time.

Freshly etched, no patina yet. These are the two thinner sheets.

What I did was double bag the pre-stamped metal sheet in heavy duty baggies (and I did get a leak, so do it over newspaper or plastic) with some Edinburgh etch solution and about an ounce of ferric chloride. Both sides of the metal were to be etched so I flipped it several times and rolled both sides. One side had rubber stamps and one side had stickers. I used detailed peel-off stickers and they worked quite well. They didn't come off, at least, even with all the rolling!

I rolled them for about 45 minutes and then took them out. 

You can see the stickers on this one. This one is the thicker metal. Yes, I got two uses out of the amount in the bag!

Below, you can see them patina'd. The one on the left was taken out about five minutes before the other one (I did them together as they both fit in the bag.) I do see a tiny difference. These were the thinner sheets I used to be able to get...I don't think Michael's sells these anymore. The thicker ones are from Hobby Lobby. The thinner ones took about 30 minutes...there was only one side to etch on these, though. 

After patina. You can tell it's a little less deep than my previous experiments. But very smooth etch!

Then I decided I wanted to try electrolytic etching. I basically used directions from this blog, but used my stamped copper with the Stazon and my own power supply. Not a great idea with the Stayzon, although it DID work...barely. PnP would be MUCH better! Or a paint pen...although I wanted to use my stamp. There is some discussion on the blog about what to do with the used solution; I'll get to my experience with that at the end....

A while back I purchased this car DC adapter and recently saw it in my garage and wondered if I could use it for electrolytic etching since you can adjust the voltage. I decided to give it a try after reading a few blogs about using similar items, although I couldn't find out about this specific one. I cut off the end, split the wire and used gator clips with screws to attach the stripped wire ends to.  

What a deal I got on this, huh! But you know it's old...they're talking about cd players!

As you can see, you can easily adjust the voltage, which was one reason I decided to try this.

After I prepared my DC adapter, I had to go find my AC adapter to plug it into so I could use it in the house. Lol! I got some Kosher salt and distilled water and mixed it till the salt wouldn't melt anymore, got some heavy duty copper wire to hang my metal from and hung the stamped sheet directly across from some scrap sheet in a large plastic container, then I clipped my alligator clips to the copper wires.  I looked online to see which side of the plug's split wire was the hot side and read that the side with the ridge was hot...but it was backwards once I plugged it all in...since I got bubbles on the side I was trying to etch! I think the Stazon would have lasted longer if I hadn't done that....I switched the clips and all was well. I sure held my breath when I plugged it in, though! :D

I set the adapter for 3 volts but I think I'll go to 4.5 next time. You can see the screwed on alligator clips attached to the wire holding up the copper sheeting in the container. I cut one wire on the adapter shorter so they will never touch each other accidentally.

Bubbles.....on the wrong side! There goes my Stazon...poo. I caught it pretty fast though, and switched the clips...

Here are the results. Not too bad, actually...! The first side pictured below is the one that had the peel off stickers. The top part in the picture was done with a stamp and Stazon. (You can see what this looks like before I etched it in the last picture on this post.) The second sticker on the second row fell off, so it wasn't etched well, but the rest held up long enough to etch satisfactorily. I may try to cut this into bracelets.

This is the second side, that was Stazon and stamp only. It isn't bad, although most of the stamping wore off prematurely. This is really one of my favorite stamps! 

So, now I am stuck with a bunch of orange crap in a soup of murky water! Is it salt? Copper? Both? It's poisonous to plants and animals...What to do?

Here's the water after a couple of days of settling. (I poured off the clear water before I took this photo.) LOTS of etched copper and excess salt! I would love to know if you could use this to electroplate with?

On the first blog, some one in the comments mentioned being able to put steel wool in the water and the steel would chemically attract the copper remnants. It worked a little but there was a LOT of copper in there. Maybe if I had added more steel wool,,,but I didn't have time for that! You can see one of the stickers that floated off...they really didn't work well with this electric method.

Here's what accumulated on the steel wool. It did seem to attract some...or maybe the orange was rust? I don't know....

What I ended up doing was pouring it through a coffee filter with a strainer and I'll reuse the still salty water. I'll probably hold onto the filtered out copper and see if i can melt it or use it some other way. Next on the agenda (and shopping list) is some PnP paper and a laminator to attach the PnP to the metal with. There seems to be some good information here about this! 

Thanks for looking and for being so patient! I will be back faster next time. :)

Here's a look at the sheets I etched, pre-etching, and where that scrap copper came from in the photos above...now, what to do with these domed disks? :)

Later!