A unique way to use Spray Silver on irregular pieces.

English Transcription of Video:

Hi, thanks for stopping by Angel Gilding. I'm Alix, and today we're going to be using our Drip Silver Kit. Now this process of drip silver is probably one of the most unique ways to create a silver mirror, and that's because you're using spray silver chemicals with a siphon table. So for today's project, we're going to be using this glass bowl here, and I wanted to mention before I move on that one of the components in the kit is wetting agent. And that's actually something that we're not going to be using for this process because as you know with glass, you don't need to wet the surface. As long as it's clean enough, then water should just sheet over it fine, and you wouldn't need the wetting agent. But if you were doing this on a plastic piece or a base coated piece, then certainly you want to make sure to incorporate the wedding agent step in the process. 
So as I mentioned, the drip silver kit is using our siphon table. So I figured we'd take a minute and really walk through all the different components of the siphon table. Now, as we can see here, it's got a very nice sturdy stand. There's two different containers. I've got one here for silver, and the other is for the reducer. And these bottles are specialized in that they've got an air hole at the top and then you can see that they each flow out on their own line here to the wand. Now this is important because as we know with the spray silver chemicals, we don't want them to touch until they're on the piece because of how quickly they react. So with this siphon setup, you're able to do that and the two chemicals come out of their own separate nozzles. Here at the tip, and we'll mix beautifully on your piece, we've got our clamps here, which are very important when we are starting up the siphon, which I will do in just a minute. 
And as you may know, one of the key aspects to a functional siphon is gravity. And so that's why I've just put this here on just a plastic bucket that I happen to have on hand. The key is that you want to make sure that your siphon table is higher than where your piece is, so that gravity's working with you there. And more or less the case is that the higher it is, the faster your low rate to some extent. So some things to keep in mind. Now, as I mentioned, we're not going to be using the wetting agent, but otherwise the process is pretty much the same as it would be with any other mirroring process. I did go ahead and already measure the chemicals. Keep in mind that the drip silver kit comes with our two-part spray silver chemicals, but it certainly works very well with our three-part spray silver chemicals. 
You just want to make sure that you're following the dilution ratios and mixing instructions for the chemicals as it's listed on the bottles because all the instructions here are going to show how to two part chemicals. So just something to keep in mind. So why don't we talk about starting the siphon first. I'm going to take my wand here and I'm using my bench kit here. Just like any other mirroring process, I want to have my piece supported above my wastewater and my bench kit does that well for me. So I've got my wands here in the tray and I'm going to start the siphon first on my silver chemicals. And the way I'm going to do that is by plugging up the air hole that's on the top of this piece and then squeezing my bottle. And what this is doing is it's forcing my silver to come out through the nozzle, and there's two ways to stop that flow. 
One is to just raise it up. The other is to clamp it. So for now that I know that my silver is flowing while I went ahead and clamped it off, and I'm going to repeat that same process with my reducer, I'm going to plug up the hole at the top, squeeze the bottle, watch to see that the reducer is flowing out, which it is. You can see that's flowing out of my piece. Clamp that. And then there's hooks on either side of the siphon table to hook up your lawn. So I'm just going to hook it there. So now I know this is ready for me and I need to move on to cleaning. Now, as we all can remember, anytime you've done a silvering process, you've probably seen that a clean piece is one of the best ways to predict success. So I am going to really take my time with this. I've got my European sponge and my cleaning powder. All of this comes in the drip silver kit.

I'm going to wet my piece down really well

And then get to cleaning. Just sprinkle some of the powder over the surface, scrub it in really well, making sure that I'm really focusing on my edges here. Okay, so I've done a lot of scrubbing on my piece. I'm pretty sure that I'm good and clean here. I'm going to rinse it off. And one of the ways that I know that I'm clean enough is I'm going to watch that the water is sheeting over my glass surface here. Okay, yeah, that is definitely sheeting right over. So I'm good. You can see the first rinse, I just did it with tap water. I don't need to do the full rinse with distilled water, but now I definitely do want to go behind it and rinse it really well. 
Now I am using this glass bowl here, but one of the really unique aspects to a drip silver kit, it is because of the way that it works. It's really good at smaller, kind irregular shapes. Say you have a lot of irregular shapes you want to do. If you had to spray them, then you'd have a lot of overspray and the pouring process can be kind of cumbersome. So the drip silver kit really meets that need in a really unique and beautiful way. Okay, we are rinsed off. Now that my piece is all rinsed, I'm going to go ahead and apply my sensitizer. You can't really spray too much of your sensitizer, so you want to make sure that you get all aspects spraying it really well. All. 
Okay? And when you're happy with that, you just want to let that sit for about 30 seconds. Okay, that's been 30 seconds. My sensitizer has had its time to attach to my surface. Now I want to rinse again, and this is really important that you rinse this really, really well. Okay, I've got that rinse off. Now I'm ready to apply my silver. And I've got this all set up. I want to unclamp both parts. And then before I go over my piece, I just want to check by just letting it drain into my container here. I see that I'm getting too nice even streams, and I'm just going to apply it over the surface. It's always a good idea to apply a little bit. And then wait, the easiest way to do that is to just hold your wand up. Ooh, I can see my silver is really developing. Can you see that here that I'm really getting my reflective surface already? I'm going to go ahead and apply a bit more silver.
Now, it is possible just like with the spray process, that you could apply too much silver. And so that's why it's always a good idea to apply a little bit stand back weight, let it develop, and then decide where it is that maybe you need to apply a bit more. I'm just going to tip it here. I don't want my silver to pull at the top and see. I need a little bit there, maybe a little bit around the edge here. But that is looking really nice, really reflective surface. Hang this up for a minute to really inspect it. 
And there you go. You can see I've got a really nice reflective silvered bowl here. I'm happy with how that's come out. And now I want to make sure I rinse really well. Okay, I have my piece nicely rinsed off, tilt, any of that excess rinse water off. And I need to allow my piece to dry completely. And the next step is to end the siphon on your siphon table. So in order to do that, I'm going to just put my wand here into a paper cup. And that's because what we're going to be doing is drawing the liquid back into our containers, and I don't want to accidentally draw any of the wastewater. So I'm going to just go ahead and use this cup here for that purpose. Now I'm going to open the clip. I'm going to squeeze my bottle to push all of the air out, and then I'm going to take my finger here and cap it over the air hole.
So I'm not allowing any air to come in. And what this is doing is it's forcing the silver that's still in the line back up into my container. So I can see now that this line is clear, I don't have any silver running through it anymore. And I'm going to repeat that same process here. I'm going to open the white clip, I'm going to squeeze any air out there might be, and then cap the air hole at the top. And this is once again, creating that siphon, pulling the liquid up through the hose. And I can see it's bubbling up here. 
And there we go. So now as I can see, I don't have any more liquid flowing out of here. I've stopped that siphon. It's always a good measure to clip it anyways and then hook it there. So once my piece is dry, I do want to make sure to protect the silver. It is a very thin silver layer that you get when you mirror, so it does need to be protected. Included in this kit is actually our black mirror backing paint, which is a really good option. What that would do on my particular piece is that I would paint the black paint over here, and then I would see that really brilliant silver reflect the finish on the inside. I could also, if I wanted to use any other paint that we have, I could use the Century Clear lacquer, I could use our Clear Uni-Coat. Any one of those would do just fine. So if you have any questions for us, want any information about any of our kits, then certainly leave a comment below or reach out to us AngelGilding.com and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of future videos. Thanks!