Fusing silver leaf/foil between glass

[Peter Angel]

Hello All,

J.Kenneth Leap has been testing fusing silver leaf/foil between sheets of glass and obtaining transparent yellow results.

Look here:

http://thepaintedwindow.blogspot.com.au ... ilver.html

I've read on this board that silver LEAF can completely disappear in the firing and thicker silver FOIL should be used but now I'm confused.

Pete

[David Jenkins]

Not a direct answer to your question, but I can just barely manage the handling of silver foil due to its flimsiness. I can't imagine having to deal with silver leaf.

More directly to your question, I often use silver foil on top of red and orange opal and capped with Tekta. It maintains its silver color, but with interesting variations due to reactions and exposure to oxygen.

HTH

[twin vision glass]

1401 crystal clear Bullseye will also give you a different look if used as a cap for the silver. AND many different kinds of Silver Foil out there and I am noticing completely different looks as well, AND yes if oxygen is at play! very beautiful. So have fun and experiment. I do have much better luck with Silver Foil and KNOW it will work where as silver leaf is iffy at best. But you can get away with it depending on what layer it is placed in your piece. If on the bottom of 6 layers, good to go but if on top of 5 layers and then capped, it stretches and flows and almost disappears. If the glass flows in any direction, just know that the silver will flow tooo and be torn apart ( which I love but hey! just how I love to work with it) Les

[Brad Walker]

I've read on this board that silver LEAF can completely disappear in the firing and thicker silver FOIL should be used but now I'm confused.

This is more true of gold leaf vs. gold foil. With silver in a reactive layup, you almost always get some sort of reaction. The degree can vary depending on thickness of silver.

Note also that the terms leaf and foil are not really standardized for silver, so one person's foil can be another person's leaf.

[Buttercup]

Not a direct answer to your question, but I can just barely manage the handling of silver foil due to its flimsiness. I can't imagine having to deal with silver leaf.
HTH

David, you probably already know this but the easiest way (for me) to handle flimsy leaf is to pick it up and place it with a gilder's tip. Don't use anything on the tip as is sometimes demonstrated by people trying to sell products. I was taught to brush the tip against my hair, gently, to create a static charge. The other theory is that the oil from your hair causes the leaf to cling to the tip. I prefer the 'static charge' theory. Whichever it is, it works. Jen

[David Jenkins]

Thanks, Jen.

Whether I'm using leaf or foil (it was sold as foil) I seem to be able to handle that for my my limited application. Nice to have the gilder's tip trick in my bag of tricks, but since I'm follicly challenged, I'll have to figure out a different way to impart some static electricity.

[Buttercup]

That is a challenge, David. One doesn't want to be accused of flashing the neighbours..... Jen

[Mark Kemp]

I can imagine that in a reactive situation, there could be a yellow effect, but in my experience with silver leaf, even bunched up, it just totally disappears. Nothing left. The leaf I have is very very thin, like other metal leaf I've seen, definitely not foil.