You Start With Eggs & Christmas in August???

Well since I did promise you a recipe to tarnish metal without using a gas mask or dealing with any hazardous waste, I suppose I better share my findings. First I should warn you that this will not work if you must have instant gratification and will surely try your patience.

In a plastic zip top bag add enough hard boil eggs to completely cover the metal pieces you want to age. Zip the bag close and mash up the eggs. Then throw in the pieces, zip bag shut again and kneed the metal into the eggs. Be sure all the metal is covered. Set the bag in a room temp area and let it peculate :) The longer you leave the metal in the more tarnish you get.

In my bag I placed 4 warm peeled hard boiled eggs, and a few "metal" charms, a couple of sterling pieces, actually not sterling but .925 pure silver, (sterling is a US measurement). A couple of different types of "silver" colored chain, a new wooden rosary. I'm sorry but no matter how I tried to take pictures I never could get a decent a shot. :( I left the bag to cook for 24hrs. with varying degrees of tarnish. The thin linked chain was a very bright silver it's now a dull gray with black along the edges. The smaller chain was some very strange kind of metal. It is very soft and a gray color (like lead) painted bright silver, very light and you can not solder to it. Sooooooo who knows what this mystery metal is, but it also doesn't aged well. I did get the shiny dulled down and some reasonable dark color started. The same goes for the new religious metals. What is this new cheap faux metal stuff made of?????? Anyone have an idea????? The piece next to the star that has all the holes in it is the .925 silver. It is the one piece with some really great patina.

The rosary was some what successful. The silver rose beads are nicely colored and the central Virgin medal isn't to bad. The cross though except for being a bit dull will need more aging. I really like what happen to the wooden beads. They were a light tan now they are a wonderful mellow dark tan as though they had been handled for many years. :)

Suggestions for next time. First use a couple of more eggs to be sure everything has a really good covering, and leave it in the bag longer. Oh yeah a word of advice even if you are temped to put the bag in the frig so that the eggs don't spoil and do that lovely egg thing DON'T !!The cold in the frig stops the gas created by the eggs. It's the sulfur the eggs release that does the tarnishing. Get it "Liver of Sulfur" ??? :) I think I will also try sanding the mystery metal finishes a bit to see if that might make a differences. Where the metals did have a bit of wear there was some patina going on.

There you have it how to tarnish metal the earth friendly way!!! It take a bit longer it's not as drastic as the chemicals, it doesn't come with any warning labels Although if you leave the eggs on the counter for a couple of days or more you might want to open the bag outside after placing a clothes pin on your nose and use "A nurse's best kept secret" breath through your mouth. :) And lastly old Dame Earth will thank you!! :)

You guys have all heard me lament about the one real draw back to living in Paradise. That is the lack of mail service we have. :( Therefore swaps, round robins, givaways and just plain because I care parcels can become logistic nightmares. :( So when ever I do receive a "just because I care" parcel you would think I'd just been given the key to the kingdom and a Karman Ghia to drive there :)

Lately My truly gracious and loving, kindred sis Jackie D has been taking stuff north and mailing it for me. She also lets me use her address in Tx. to have stuff mailed to. She and her husband still have a house there and they go up every couple of months to check on an aging family member. With the return to Mazatlan the other day there was a parcel from Australia for me!!!! :) My Bloglandian Sister Christina of Rustic Tarts sent me a wonderful box full of wonderful things...

A package of the infamous Tim Tam cookies. We haven't tried the Tim Tam Slam yet ( will report back with results) but to this transplanted Yank they taste a whole lot like the chocolate cookies here in Mexico. There's a bag stuffed full of silk sari scraps, some beautiful local rocks. Amazing Aboriginal paper art, and a decorated gum leaf book mark, a book with the introduction to the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Even LW had a treasure to unwrap. Christina says they are called "Stubby Holders" She wasn't sure what we called them. I'm not sure I know what the official name is either. We always call the cup cosies?? :) But even that has beautiful Aboriginal art work on it!!

Thank you ever so much my dear Bloglandian Sister, your love and friendship mean the world to me! :)

It has been a little less then a year since I stumbled into this amazing world of Bloglandia. It has been such an incredible experience both exhilarating and humbling. After 53 years to find an amazing group of creative people that not only truly believe, but are Artist who Get It!!!!! Humbling for the amount of love, caring and unconditional friendship that has been shared with me, by friends I have only met via this strange new world of Bloglandia. As we all know the chances of physically meeting most of each other is slim, but yet despite that fact we are truly a family and a Sisterhood. Oye Tristan you may never be a sister but a brother "aint" bad either!! :) A most magnificent band of creative, gifted artists each in our own right, who without hesitation have opened our hearts up to experience all that it means to be Human. What a most incredible life I have been given to live, made all the more amazing because of this family called Bloglandia, that has unconditionally excepted little ol dysfunctional me!! Thank you will never be enough but it is all I have right now :)

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are ;)