Precious Metals // Making Jewellery Out Of Spent Photographic Fixer

This month, I have been taking a silversmith course at Margate Adult Education Centre, learning how to make jewellery . I also spent a day with Laura from Godessa Jewellery , working on a new series of pendants inspired by astronomer Dr Camilla Hansen - who has detected silver and palladium in around 50 stars.
Godessa Jewellery
godessajewelle...
Research from Camilla Hansen:
www.nationalge...
In this video, I show how myself and Laura worked together in her studio. You can see the full silver electroplating technique from photographic fixative, used in April's video. I have far from perfected the technique, but I hope to do this over the next year.
• Origin of Silver // Si...
This is all part of my "Precious Metals" project, which now has it's own page on my website, and is co-funded by Arts Council England and my Patreon subscribers.
You can find links so my patreon and socials below:
Patreon :- / melaniekking​​
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Website :- www.melaniek.c...​​
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[@danford8989]

Thanks for the video. Always look forward to your videos. Wish I had my grandmothers old silver so I could do some neat projects with them.

[@MelanieKing]

Thank you, that is very nice of you to say!

[@AnalogueHolly]

Amazing work here!

[@MelanieKing]

Thanks Holly!

[@rich1668]

Awesome keep it up with the eco stuff it’s the way to go, also loving the retro watch so much cooler than the smart watches that everyone seems to have.

[@MelanieKing]

Thank you Rich. I love my casio watch, and it also waterproof. :D

[@ClosestNearUtopia]

And why would this be more “eco” silver then just plating some ring in silver the traditional way, that is recycled to.

[@MelanieKing]

Because otherwise the silver from the fixative would just go down the drain, and pollute water ways. Also, plating silver uses new silver instead of recycling it. Which is the whole point of my project :)

[@ClosestNearUtopia]

@@MelanieKing should you not take your chemicals somewhere to be processed and recycled!? Who drains their chemicals tru the drain…🤨 You compain about evironmental issues, but I assume after plating, you just threw it down the drain, since that your proposed and assumed solution to get rid of it. also plating probably does not use new silver since that is mostly stored and poured into bars, from recycling we can get most silver back, and use that for plating, altough some new silver could and is still used for plating ofc..

[@MelanieKing]

@@ClosestNearUtopia I have done lots of research in this area, in collaboration with other artists in the sustainable darkroom movement. First of all, on an individual scale, it is hard to get chemicals taken away and disposed of. Secondly, I often make my own developer from plant based sources (check my other videos) and use fix to exhaustion. I then neutralise the developer and fixer, as well as removing silver. Yes, the chemicals I use sometimes go down the drain but I take steps to minimise my impact, and am looking for new ways to improve. Your methods work on a large scale for universities and large commercial darkrooms, but what do you suggest as an alternative for people who don't have a connection to such facilities?

[@MelanieKing]

Oh and sometimes I use concentrated salt water solutions to stabilise but not fix my images. Silver is not removed from the film/paper but remains chemically stable and inert.