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Shibuichi: Make it yourself My Website

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A few years ago I did a little post about when I made shibuichi for the
first time. My friend Victoria Altepeter taught me how to make it. I My Flickr
get tons of hits on this post and tons of people are directed to my
blog when they do a google keyword search for "shibuichi". I have
google analytics, which is how I know how people find my blog. Its a
SEARCH THIS BLOG
cool and creepy thing.
Anyway, I thought since I get so much traffic to my blog from people Search
looking to learn how to make shibuichi, that I should do a more
detailed post on the matter. So, here we go.
How to make your own shibiuichi!
Shibuichi is a Japanese alloy of silver and copper. It can range F I N D M Y W O R K A T. . .
anywhere between 5% silver to 50% silver with the rest being copper.
Shibuichi is a beautiful pinkish white metal that can take a wide Arizona State University Art Museum
range of patinas to change to many colors from blues and greens to Store
deep reds and oranges. It works wonderfully, reticulates to amazing
textures, and casts well. Oh, and because of its high copper content, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary
its cheaper than sterling! I prefer a 70-80% copper and 20-30% silver Art Store
alloy.

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ABOUT ME

LYNETTE
MESA, ARIZONA, UNITED
STATES

I am a metalsmith,
First you need to decide what precentage you want your alloy to be.
Once you have determined that, cut your scrap metal into small educator, wife, and
pieces and weigh it out (separately by metal). Keep in mind that if mother, living the life of an ex-pat in
you are using sterling instead of fine silver you have to account for
Doha, Qatar. I moved to Doha from
the fact that sterling already is 7.5% copper.
 Your next step is to decide what kind of ingot you are going to pour Arizona, where I had previously spent
(sheet or wire). Then make sure you carbon coat the ingot so your
most of my life. I earned a Bachelors
metal will not stick to it. Do this by lighting just the gas on your
oxy/acetylene torch and running the flame over your ingot mold. of fine art in metals in 2006, and a
The smoke that comes off the gas only flame is dark dirty and will Masters of Fine Arts in Metals in
totally coat your mold in carbon.
2010. I was the resident artist at the
Mesa Art Center from 2010-2013, and
an adjunct professor in metals at
Central Arizona College. I am
currently trying to balance
navigating/living in a foreign country
with being a mother and a practicing
artist. My blog is a place for me to
share my thoughts, experiences,
successes and failures with you.

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See how black it is?

C O N TA C T

lynette.andreasen@gmail.com

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Amanda Scheutzow
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Then its time to preheat your crucible. Make sure your crucible is
large enough to hold the amount of metal you are going to pour. You Becky McDonah
should have a crucible designated just for shibuichi (although
Catherine Chandler
depending on your alloy, it may be ok to use your sterling crucible).
This is so you do not cross contaminate your metals. Light your torch Corey Ackelmire
and heat up your crucible until it is slightly glowing with heat. Also
Danielle Embry
make sure to give it a coating of flux (borax). Make sure you always
wear protective eyewear when working with the torch, and other Devlyn Arilla
appropriate safety gear.
Ellie Richards
Emiko Oye
Etsy Metal
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Hans Meevis
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Jessica Calderwood
Jill Baker Gower
John Tzelepis
Joseph Kendrick
Julie Lake
Kazumi Ito
Kent Perdue
KMJewelryStudio
Now you are ready to start melting metal. This is where it gets fun! Kristin Beeler
I always start with my higher melting temperature metal first (so in
Lauren McAdams
this case, copper). Put your CLEAN copper scraps into the crucible
and heat with the torch until they are completely molten to a liquid Lora Hart
state. Then add your silver and heat until it is melted. Add a little
Marco Rosichelli
more borax and scrape any junk off the surface of your liquid metal.
Make sure to stir with a carbon rod so you know the metal is Margaux Lange
completely molten.
Masumi Kataoka
When all your metal is liquified, you are ready to pour into your
ingot. This takes coordination and practice. I am not coordinated Megan Auman
and almost always spill some out. Luckily any spills are recoverable!
Metalcyberspace
Mindy Sue Meyers
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Try to pour continuously and quickly. If you go to slow or have
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breaks, you may not end up with one solid piece when it cools.
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Wait until the metal is no longer red hot before opening the ingot
mold, or taking your metal out (depending on which type of mold you ► March (2)
are using). Then you can open it up, take the metal out, quench in
► February (3)
water and then pickle.
After pickling I take my ingot to the belt sander and grind off any ► January (5)
sharp edges or flashing. When rolling your metal down in the rolling
mill these sharp edges can cause cracks. If you do see any cracks
► 2011 (29)
when rolling out your metal, make sure to grind them completely
away right away, otherwise they will just get bigger and bigger each ► 2010 (118)
time you feed your metal through the rolling mill.
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F I N D M E O N FA C E B O O K !

As you can see from the picture below, I poured too slowly and got
a separation of the metal in my ingot. This part needs to be cut off
or it will just crack.

Click on the image to add me on

Facebook.
 After grinding and rounding all edges, you are ready to mill your
metal down to whatever form you want it in (sheet or wire). You
don't have to anneal yet, because when pouring the ingot the metal
definitely reached annealing temperature! Set your rolling mill for
the thickness of your ingot, and then tighten just slightly. You dont
want to force the metal too fast. Each time you feed your metal
through the rollers, you can tighten them down a little. All mills are
different, but I usually tighten between and eighth and a quarter of a
turn.
Once you feel more resistance, its time to anneal. I usually only roll
my ingot through the mill 4-5 times before annealing. Just keep
annealing and running it through the mill until you get the thickness
that you want!

Viola, you now have your very own hand made shibuichi! For more
direction on making shibuichi, check out this video of my friend, Andy
Cooperman.
 And here is a picture of the shibuichi I rolled out and then
reticulated.

Now you can see how easy it is to make your own shibuichi. Have
fun!
Like 38

POSTED BY LYNETTE AT 11:59 AM

LABELS: ANDY COOPERMAN , CASTING , COPPER AND SILVER ALLO Y, HOW TO

MAKE SHIBUICHI , INGOT, POURING AND INGOT, REFINING YOUR OWN METAL ,
RETICULATION , SHIBUICHI , VICTORIA ALTEPETER

2 COMMENTS:

Shannon Chomanczuk said...

Thanks for the tutorial. I don't have all the supplies I would need to
do this yet but hope to someday as I have pounds of copper scrap.

O C TOBER 5 , 2 0 1 2 AT 8 : 4 3 P M

Silver Moss Jewellery said...

This post is fascinating - I don't have the equipment to do it at
present but will bookmark it for when I do!

And I've linked to it in a post on my blog -

http://silvermoss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-jewelled-web-
january-2013.html

Thank you!
J A N UARY 3 0 , 2 0 1 3 AT 7 : 1 4 A M

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