How not to do it

My LOS gave up the ghost while we were trying to sell our New York house, and, in the spirit of hoping we would sell and move sooner rather than later, I didn't replace it. It wasn't easy for me to fit metal working into showing the house; I didn't have a bench or a workshop, and I had to solder in the kitchen. Because I didn't have a lot of kitchen cabinets, that meant bringing everything out of the cupboard under the stairs, setting it up, trying to work in-between meal times, and getting everything cleaned up and put away in ten minutes if someone wanted to see the house.

Not surprising that I began to focus more on beading!

When we moved, we lived in a rental for the first six months, and I wasn't too sure the owner would take too kindly to me playing with fire in his kitchen, so I parked my tools and continued to play with beads. But now that I have my own bench, and my own corner of the garage to play in, the torch is getting a regular workout.

Which brings us back to the question of patina. I was an LOS addict when I had it; everything got dunked. When it expired, I went through major withdrawal, but then I eventually got to like the shiny look of polished silver, and, until today, I thought I would never go back to it. But today, I really wanted one of those gorgeous purple blue patinas; I'd even settle for just plain black in the crevices. I really wanted to show off the details in a pair of earrings I'd just finished.

So, having no LOS, I tried the old egg yolk method. All I got was dirty looking silver. Maybe I was too impatient; maybe I'm just too used to the results that are possible with LOS. All I know is that I did not like it. Not at all.

My LOS should be in the mail tomorrow.