Its all about the light..

Went for a lovely - though very wet - new years day walk near Twyford, Winchester. It rained for the whole 2 hours but it didn't matter. Good company, lovely scenery and fresh air. I picked some seedpods en-route, and despite slipping on a muddy slope (slow motion full frontal fall, slid a yard or two in the mud causing hilarity from friends and swear words from me) I managed to get the seedpods home intact. Photos here of them and other inspiring things that I plan to use for silver etching.

 

I have had my first go at etching. Just a small handmade bead, drew little flowers with a sharpie marker pen. Put a cocktail stick through the middle to stop the inside etching. I mixed up just a little ferric nitrate (bought from www.meguk.com) with distilled water (from Halfords) - 2 parts water, 1 part nitrate. Popped in the bead and set it on the doorstep for a couple of hours. It didn't seem to be doing much but actually when I finally took it out and polished it up there was a clear pattern.

I oxidised it in liver of sulfer to darken the etched surface. I love it, and am pleased that the process was relatively simple. I used bicarbonate of soda to neutralise the bead. Looking forward now to using some of the photos above for etching.