How to Oxidize Sterling Silver by Meredith from Raven's Craving Studios

Looking to beautiful your jewelry before the holiday season begins?  Meredith Steele from Raven's Craving Studios is here to share her earth friendly tutorial on how to oxidize your sterling silver jewelry.  

Preliminary work: Construct something to hang your earrings, findings, whatever you want to oxidize on. I built this overly-excessive and probably-unnecessary wire thingy.  *muffersquish says "Instead of making a "overly-excessive and probably-unnecessary wire thingy" I simply put the pendant on a string and taped the ends of the string to the lid of the tupperware." What a great idea! Thanks muffersquish!


Step One: Obtain 3 eggs, I just buy cheapy eggs in half-dozen cartons (Hope recommends purchasing happy chicken eggs from a local farmer friend).  You will only use 3 per batch so you can get 2 batches from one carton. You will also need some sort of air-tight container, I like to use the cheap-tupperware-type leftover containers.

Step Two: Boil the eggs in salty water for about 20 minutes. You should put the eggs in the pot before you add the water so dropping them in will not crack them. It doesn't really matter if they crack, the salt in the water will stop them from leaking all over the place.    


Step Three: While the eggs are steaming hot, put them in the air tight container, shells still on. Mash them up with your choice of mashing tool. I use a fork. Mash them up good, especially the yolks!!

Step Four: Place your hangy-tool, or the overly-excessive and probably-unnecessary wire thingy in the airtight container, and hang your stuff on it. The objective here is to hang the items so they do not touch the eggs and get all... eggy.

Step Five: Replace lid and wait. It usually takes about an hour. You will see results after just 15 minutes but it will turn goldish bronze first, then brown, and finally dark grey. I get sick of waiting for it so I just leave them overnight and in the morning I have some lovely oxidized pretties!

Step Six: In the morning, just pop open the container, and throw the eggs away, compost them, or feed them to your dog, whichever! :) You can take a polishing cloth and rub off some of the oxidization to achieve that gorgeous depth in the cracks and crevices of your silver.

If you want your piece to stay dark all over, you can seal it. Most people recommend Renaissance Wax. If your oxidized parts won't be in contact with skin a lot, it's not necessary.  There you have it!


Many thanks to Meredith for sharing your lovely tutorial with Big Bad Art!  For those of you who aren't familiar with Meredith's work, Raven's Craving Studio features high quality handcrafted artisan jewelry using gemstones, pearls, sterling silver, antique brass, and dark annealed steel.  

Reclaimed Turquoise Nugget Necklace by Raven's Craving Studios


Vegetarian since 2003, Meredith has been utilizing earth friendly creative business methods since opening her Etsy shop 5 years ago.  

Earthy Picture Jasper and Waxed Cotton Wrap Bracelet by Raven's Craving Studios


Meredith's love of jewelry began as a young child, perhaps 7 or 8 years old, while visiting a bead shop.  Since then, she has earned a degree in art and design and her knowledge of beading and jewelry making continues to grow at a pace much faster than she ever imagined.  Go Meredith!