Re: Funky silver flakes on top of the water

I call it hairy due to the "hair like" formations that tend to grow on electrodes in cases such as these :)

As for the method, I'd call this the emergency method myself.  ie, great to get someone out of a bind, though not so great for long term use. However, I wouldn't impose this on anyone as I realize it's possible to make perfectly good colloidal silver this way with a little care and finesse.

That being said, you could easily improve your setup by adding just a few simple components such as: 

A current limiting diode: 

And...  A mini voltage meter:

Both of which would allow you to control the particle size and more importantly...  the monitoring of your silver content/saturation as things move along. 

Hope this helps.