Copper and heat ( and a pheasant!?)

[surfergirl]

Hi Katia

Your engraving is stunning. Where did you learn your skill? Your patination experiments sound interesting, it'd be good to hear how your next attempt turns out.

[Keia]

Has anyone had experiance with using Krylon Clear to seal the colours in?

[Pauline]

Beautiful engraving

[Katia]

Thanks for your kind words!
Surfergirl, I studied in Liège at Léon Mignon. ( Belgium)

Yesterday I put a strip of copper on a bed of salt and vinegar crisps. ( everything is in a container with a lid on.) A patina has already started to develop! ( shades of green). It should stay in there for 10 days or so...
I also did a bit more of flame colouring on copper and as I had some gold wire laying around ( as a gun engraver, I do a lot of gold inlay) I decided to quickly inlay it with a gold line, just to see how it would look like.
I also used the tip of my inlaying tool to give a texture to the copper. It was looking good until I started to notice the appearance of black dots. Hum, I wonder if maybe the fact that I was " hammering" the copper as it was still in setters wax might have something to do with this? Reading about hammered copper suggests that the copper should be on plywood or newspaper when hammering it. Need to try that!

[Carl Grigg]

Sounds fascinating, did a search on cooksons but nothing came up where can one buy these "salt and vinegar crisps" ;-)

But seriously is this a known technique that I have not come across before or are you breaking new ground?

keep up the great work I am currently playing with Mokume Gane and patina is very much on my mind.

Carl

[ps_bond]

Salt, salt & ammonia fuming - all well known patinae. Salt & vinegar crisps I'd probably stick to eating...

Horse urine is also very effective on copper; while I have an endless supply available, I'm not sure it should be posted according to Royal Mail's guidelines. You can also patinate using sawdust, wood shavings or cat litter soaked in the patina solution of choice.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colouring-Br.../dp/0500015015 has a comprehensive list of receipts & colours for various metals.

A quick bit of googling found this: http://archive.org/details/metalcolouringa00hiorgoog
Free, but old recipes and some potential nasties.

[Katia]

http://elfshotgallery.blogspot.co.uk...ments.html?m=1

Hello there!
Here is where I read about it on the internet, though the very first time I saw it was a few months ago in a book I borrowed from my local library.
You have to read the comments to see more details about how the person does it. The crunched bits of crisps Laying against the copper are what is supposed to give Interesting patterns. ( it is the comment from the 20th of October)
Funnily enough, this X mas, I realised that a neighbour of mine actually has a degree in silversmithing. And her degree papers was about...patination!! So when I told her about the salt and vinegar crisps, she was not surprised and actually told me yes, it works indeed, she had tried it.
She also said keep a lid on it and wait for 2 weeks! ( this is now the second day and a deep shade of green has developped)
Yes Peter, I saw that book on amazon and I think I will need to buy it.
Must say that I am at this moment trying all the recipes I have gathered ( one at a time) with stuff I can find round the house. I am a bit worried about using chemicals and blowing the house up!
Indeed, not sure as you say that royal mail would be very happy to handle mare's urine. What a pity!