Copper and heat ( and a pheasant!?)

[Katia]

Hello,

I have been making a bit of beaded jewellery for the last year, but these past few days I started to experiment with copper.
I made this pendant. I need to buy needle files and saw a lot more of course! But I am quite happy with the results I got for the colours.( I used a butane torch )
I have been reading quite a lot about the best way to preserve the colours given by heat on copper and it looks like Renaissance wax is the way to go! Mine has just arrived. Woo-hoo! Quite curious to see how the colors will evolve.
The heart is 1/2 an inch high and 3/4 wide.

Here is also a picture of my latest engraving, which is almost finished. I think the height of the pheasant is 3 to 3.5 cm high but I should check again.

[caroleallen]

Wow Katia, your engraving is amazing!

[Goldsmith]

Great engraving, can we see more?

[ps_bond]

Hi Katia - long time no see. Good to see you're still doing some jewellery too - but your engraving is, as always, fantastic.

[Dennis]

Superb engraving, but my experience with flame patination of copper is that waxing it caused the colours to disappear. So when I tried that with my leaf below, I had to de-grease it and start again.

Dennis.

[Katia]

Thanks for your kind words about the engraving! If you want to have a look at more of my work, you can check the website that is part of my signature on this forum.
I am trying to upload more pictures here, but it looks like myvtablet just does not want me to do that at the moment? Grr.

Dennis, I have just put some Renaissance wax on the pendant and the colours have not changed! Maybe this is because of the way that I treated the pendant before heating it? I actually left it in vinegar for 3 days and then proceded with the whole thing. I also had added some salt to the solution.( your leaf is absolutely fantastic!)

[Dennis]

Mmmm there's a mystery. Did you heat yours still wet with the solution?

[Katia]

Hi Dennis!

This is how the heating of the pendant happened:

I was looking for a method where I did not have to use too many chemicals to give colours to copper. So when I found a few videos on youtube about using vinegar and salt, I was well pleased. BUT: there was no real directions about how much of what should be used and for how long. One of the instructions was to heat up the solution though. Which I did. And I can tell you that the smell of cooking vinegar is quite...special. I put my pendant in the pan. For probably 30 mins. Then I just could not stomach the smell of hot vinegar so I simply left it in there. nothing was happening, but I thought that as I was off for 3 days, I might as well leave the pendant in the solution and hey, maybe when I come back, patination has occured!!

3 days later...NOTHING. nothing exciting at all. It looked dull. So I decided to heat the stuff up. Then you can guess what happened.

Ah, also I did use steel wool. A few times. I flamed the stuff for maybe 4 or 5 times. That was said to be quite important by a copper painting artist. Someone also says you should put your item in the fridge as soon as it is flamed to preserve the colours.
It looks like quite a lot of the jewellery artists who sell copper flamed items put renaissance wax on it, but of course we cannot see what the colours were before they applied it. But their items all have very nice colours I think!

Maybe I was really lucky actually and the next time I give it a go, my colours will not remain. but as the next time is gonna be very soon, I will let you know how it all goes!

I must say that I find this subject completely fascinating. Hope I am not boring everyone now!

[Dennis]

I once read in a newspaper letters column: No sooner do we have a clear sky, than an aeroplane comes and scribbles on it. Well, I've scribbled on this column for some time and if people don't like it they just ignore it.

My problem with colouring both copper and silver is that the results are not entirely predictable and worst of all the colours will continue to darken, until ultimately there are fifty shades of grey. So if you do this for money there would be cause for complaint.

Nice talking to you, Dennis.

[Katia]

Hi Dennis,

Yes, it looks like the preservation of the lovely colours you can get on copper has been a sort of baffling subject to many people!
I am keeping on reading on the subject and something that has cropped up quite a few times is to put the item in a heat proof container just after heating it and putting it in the freezer.( I thought it was the fridge, but I guess the subzero temperature might be of importance. I shall give it a go and observe what happens.

I Have just purchased ammonia, so that will be my next attempt at patinating copper. Ah, and borax as well!

[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-Bronzing-Patination-Metals-Metalworkers/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/2009/07/patinating-copper-experiments.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!