How to Antique Sterling Silver

You can antique your sterling silver jewelry without dangerous chemicals.

There’s nothing like the lovely patina on antique sterling silver jewelry. The darkened cracks and crevices make the shinier surface designs stand out beautifully. Newer silver jewelry can have the same lovely glow that your antique pieces do, and you don’t have to pay a jeweler to do it for you. Normally jewelers use liver of sulfur to oxidize the surface of the metal, but this requires some preparation and safety measures. However, if you can boil an egg you can use the sulfur from the yolks to antique your sterling silver jewelry pieces at home.

Things You'll Need

• Pan with lid
• Water
• Tongs
• Plastic zip-lock baggie
• Eggs
• Sterling silver jewelry
• Silver polishing cloth

Instructions

1. Put a couple of eggs in a pan and add enough water to cover the tops of the shells by 1 inch.

2. Bring the water to a full boil, then place the lid on the pan and remove it from the heat. Let the eggs sit in the hot water for 17 to 20 minutes.

3. Use the tongs to immediately remove the eggs from the pan, crack them open to remove the hot, hardened yolks, and place the yolks in the plastic baggie.

4. Add the sterling silver jewelry to the baggie and seal it tightly.

5. Leave the jewelry in the baggie for at least 15 minutes. Shake the baggie if necessary to move the jewelry around and expose all parts of the silver to the oxidative effect of the sulfur in the egg yolks.

6. If you are not satisfied with the patina, remove the jewelry, pop the baggie in the microwave and reheat the eggs for 30 seconds. Then put the jewelry back in with the reheated eggs for 15 more minutes.

7. Remove the jewelry and rinse off any egg yolk. Dry the jewelry and use a silver polishing cloth to carefully buff up the high spots in the design to help show off the patina.

Tips & Warnings

• You can safely leave jewelry in the baggie to oxidize overnight.

• This technique works well with silver-dipped ceramic beads, too.

• Oxidizing with egg yolk is not likely to harm crystals or stones.

• Take care to avoid burning your fingers while cracking open hot eggs to remove the yolks.

References

• Home Jewelry Business Success Tips: Oxidize Sterling Silver Naturally
• Gravel Road Jewelry: How to Oxidize Sterling Silver Using an Egg