Keum-boo

   I had heard about Keum-boo before but never had the opportunity to do it.  Keum-boo is the technique of adding 24K gold foil to hot metal.  It is cheaper than using gold clay, (although at $54 for a 3 1/2 inch square it isn't cheap.)  I finally got to try it during the earring extravaganza class at Arrowmont.  

   These earrings don't have the wire added yet and like the by-pass ring they were made flat.  That made it much easier to burnish the gold foil to the hot metal using an agate burnisher (and of course gloves.)  I think I remember the instructor saying that the metal had to be 900 degrees.  I didn't burn myself (on this pair of earrings, which is to say that I did burn myself on another pair...... didn't realize the torch had not gone off.)  They are a little heavy and I used way too much gold on them to be profitable.  (So they're mine!)  Since it was my first time at keum-boo I didn't try anything fancy.  Of course, every little left over scrap was saved so I can try more detail the next time.  (Once I buy myself more tools.)

    Once the metal cooled, we wrapped them very carefully around a ring mandrel to shape them.  And then tumbled the heck out of them to make them strong, otherwise there is a little too much give to them.  It would be easy to bend them out of shape when polishing  but the tumbling made a huge difference in their strength.