Hi there. I was rooting through my little treasure bin and I found a little bottle of something blue that had purchased from a jewelry supply store during a going-out-of-business sale. It was cheap, sounded promising, so I bought it. Just now trying it. It appears to be some kind of verdigris (not that I really know what that means), as when rubbed on copper, a beautiful bluish green oxidation of sorts will appear, then dry very chalky and fragile. It is easily wiped off with just a finger. Too bad. I love the color. Is there a recommended way to either seal this (without a thick, unseemly coating on the work) or create a more durable, similar finish?

I made this anvil/stake yesterday, from a steel rod and some scrap wood. I've been wanting to forge a rounded contour to rings for design and comfort and it works perfectly!

The block on the right side slides off to allow the ring to slip over the stake. That's my grandpa's mallet, it's very soft. He was a Boeing machinist - I don't know exactly what he did with it, but it's great for massaging silver without marring the surface at all. I've had it in the back of a tool box for years - since he died in 1986 or so, and now I've found a purpose for it. I couldn't be happier.

I just opened up the box on my brand new (jewelry-size) rolling mill - I've never used one before. I read that cut-out paper makes a suitable pattern for imprinting and gave it a try on some copper sheet (approx 21 gauge). Not very impressive results. I used cut paper taped directly to the copper. Nothing else - no "sandwich" as I have read about. Can anyone offer some tips on getting the maximum (or even acceptable) depth/strength out of my imprint?

I've been experimenting with carving wax, working on some projects and I keep having little moments that seem like miniature breakthroughs. Recently:

- Carving wax can be assembled with Super Glue. This makes for tidy joints without the fillet (think prongs), and at very least can hold your parts together while you weld them with a hot pen.

Does anybody have some tips on soldering gold? I'm pretty handy at soldering silver, but I have never tried gold. I understand that one needs to heat the solder joint more directly as opposed to the whole piece. I think I can handle that. Anything else that a silver-soldering person might need to know before beginning to experiment?