Nickel Plating

I have seen some beautiful stained glass pieces that have been plated with
either nickel or gold. The person who was selling them told me she crafted
the items herself and then sent them away to be plated. I asked where and
she would not tell me. Do any of you have information on this. It gave her
work a beautiful finish that did not tarnish. Her items were very resonably
priced which makes me wonder if they were sent to Mexico or some other
country. Is it possible she did not handcraft the items herself, but bought
them from a foreign supplier?

"Maggie" wrote in message
...
I have seen some beautiful stained glass pieces that have been plated with
either nickel or gold. The person who was selling them told me she
crafted
the items herself and then sent them away to be plated. I asked where and
she would not tell me. Do any of you have information on this. It gave
her
work a beautiful finish that did not tarnish. Her items were very
resonably
priced which makes me wonder if they were sent to Mexico or some other
country. Is it possible she did not handcraft the items herself, but
bought
them from a foreign supplier?


It's not rocket science...plating plants are all over the place. I wonder
why she wouldn't tell you where her source was?

Maggie wrote:

I have seen some beautiful stained glass pieces that have been plated with
either nickel or gold. The person who was selling them told me she crafted
the items herself and then sent them away to be plated. I asked where and
she would not tell me. Do any of you have information on this. It gave her
work a beautiful finish that did not tarnish. Her items were very resonably
priced which makes me wonder if they were sent to Mexico or some other
country. Is it possible she did not handcraft the items herself, but bought
them from a foreign supplier?


I'd have to agree with Moonraker's response. Plating business are all
over the place. I would seem to believe the items are foreign made.

The following is in my humble opinion and some may disagree.

Over the past few years, I've seen tons of stained glass coming from
Asia that is sold at very reasonable prices. A lot of it you will find
being sold via internet auctions, Wally World and home building centers.
However, in my opinion, the workmanship / craftsmanship is typically
not very good with these pieces. The soldering is usually pretty sloppy
and the glass just doesn't have the nice luster as seen in high quality
glass like Spectrum, Bulls Eye, etc. A good soldering job on stained
glass will have a nice round bead found throughout the piece. This is
something you won't find on mass produced work coming from Asia. The
glass is usually slapped together very quickly and the workmanship is poor.

Stained glass pieces such as lamp shades or panels that contain may
individual pieces of glass take a lot of time (hours)and effort to put
together. Someone who takes pride in their work isn't going to let go
of a piece for bargain basement prices like the foreign made pieces.
Time is money, money is time. Your feelings that items were made
elsewhere are probably correct.

John

On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 18:54:14 -0600, "Maggie"
wrote:

I have seen some beautiful stained glass pieces that have been plated with
either nickel or gold.

Nickel plating is one of the easiest plating processes to use and is
easily done at home. Talk to "Caswell" and get one of their electroless
nickel plating kits (about 50 pounds UK). You may find this more easily
through the custom motorbike trade (they're always useful people to
talk to about plating).

Nickel is a hard process to do well electrolytically, but fortunately
the electroless process works well for it. You mix up a bucketful of the
kit's supplied chemistry, clean and prepare the piece well then simply
immerse it. There's no need to supply electricity at all.

The chemistry is complicated and is not available outside the kits for
anything less than ridiculous quantities. You'll not have much luck
trying to make your own kits up, so buy Caswells (even if you _are_ an
industrial chemist with good access to chemistry, unless you're in the
plating trade itself)

Gold is a nightmare to plate because of the cost tied up in the plating
solutions. If you really want it done, then talk to a manufacturing
jeweller and have them do it.

Just look in the Yellow Pages under "plating," plenty of them in all
major cities. Keep in mind that the people doing the plating cannot,
will not, plate zinc as it spoils their chemicals. Also, if you use
cames: do not putty until after the plating is done as putty also
screws up their chemicals. Brass ("gold") plating tends to tarnish
easily (finger prints etc.).
Pricing is usually by the batch - whatever fits in their tank so save
up your stuff. Some people will take small pieces to fill up tank
space and give you a deal that way.
Yup, sure looks nice and the lpating also encapsulates the lead so you
won't have exposed lead concerns.
Good luck,
Bart.

-
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www.haruteq.com/contact.htm
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**may your moments of need be met by moments of compassion**

"Maggie" wrote in message
...
I have seen some beautiful stained glass pieces that have been plated with
either nickel or gold. The person who was selling them told me she
crafted
the items herself and then sent them away to be plated. I asked where and
she would not tell me. Do any of you have information on this. It gave
her
work a beautiful finish that did not tarnish. Her items were very
resonably
priced which makes me wonder if they were sent to Mexico or some other
country. Is it possible she did not handcraft the items herself, but
bought
them from a foreign supplier?



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