Oxidize Sterling Silver Naturally

by Pat Greer.
If you’re looking for a way to oxidize sterling silver naturally, a hard-boiled egg will do the trick beautifully. Here’s how:

Oxidized chunky bracelet by Pat Greer.

Boil an egg and peel it. While it’s still hot, break the egg into pieces and put it into a tightly sealed container, along with the piece of sterling silver jewelry you want to oxidize.

The container can be glass, plastic or even a Ziploc bag (I’ve used them all). Just make sure that it is airtight.

After a short while (maybe 15-20 minutes), shake the container around a little to redistribute the jewelry. I’ve found that if you don’t get the jewelry moving around, some of the silver may not oxidize very well.

This method of oxidizing sterling silver may take longer than using liver of sulfur, but it seems to work just as well – and you don’t have to go outside in six feet of snow to do it!

If the egg gets cold before your sterling silver piece has oxidized as much as you’d like, remove the egg from the container and pop it into the microwave to heat it back up. Then place it back into the container and seal it up again.

I have used this process to oxidize ceramic beads dipped in silver also. When oxidizing ceramic beads dipped in silver, some of the pieces seemed to bubble if I laid them in the container. So what I do now is string them on cord with knots in between each bead to separate them. This seems to give better results.

The boiled egg method is the only way I oxidize sterling silver – and while it’s a little messy (the yolk gets into all those nooks and crannies), I like knowing that the process I’ve used is completely natural.

So boil up an egg, get out some sterling silver jewelry, and give it a try. And boil an extra egg to munch on while you wait!

Author Pat Greer designs sterling silver jewelry for PL Greer, using African beads, handmade lampwork beads and more.