Handmade Silver Jewelry by Jo

Tips on how to anneal silver

If you want to anneal sterling silver wire, coil it up, if you can. Then, I place it in a terra cotta bowl with pumice in it. It’s easiest if you can heat it in low light so you can see it turn red. Turn your torch to a yellow bushy flame.  Once the silver is red, follow it with the torch once or twice..that should do it. Sometimes you can see it relax while you’re torching.  Same theory works for sheet silver…make sure to heat evenly.

Using a pair of tweezers or tongs, lift it up and quench it in water, and you should be able to bend it with your fingers if it annealed.  I always tumble everything once it’s a finished piece to clean it.