GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: I'm looking for a source for a dark, pewter colored chain. I want to make chain chokers and I like the way they look on the darker chain. Any ideas on how to find it?

A: I don't know of a source myself, but let me pass on an idea someone gave me yesterday regarding something related -- plating! If you can't find anything pre-made, get the kind of chain you want in brass or other lower cost metal, then have it electroplated locally with whatever material they recommend that will give the effect you want! Electroplating sources might be in the yellow pages and certainly are in magazines like Lapidary Journal. I buy sterling and then dip it in a patina made from Liver of sulfur. It turns gold, then blue, then grey-black. You can also buy colored patinas made by a company called 'Modern Options'. They make a Patina Black, a Pewter Black, and a Flemish Grey, as well as green, blue, burgundy, and English Brown patinas. Patina black looks like black wrought iron. I don't remember the difference between the Pewter Black and Flemish Grey solutions.