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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Heat patina on copper

Love the colours!


Last week I promised a little video on how I add heat patina's to copper. I think the video demonstrates it quite well. The main trick is to practice a few times, and keep in mind that the patina will continue to grow even after you remove the heat source. I also find that I get much better colour if I do not quench the metal after heating. Just let the metal cool down naturally.

You'll notice that you'll see the colours appear in the following order:
Gold
Orange/Red
Pink
Purple
Dark Blue
Light Blue - pale blue silvery tone
Black

The torch I use is the Blazer Spitfire Torch that we sell here at beadFX

Your metal also needs to be very clean. You can use commercial copper cleaners (like pennybrite). However, I find that a bowl filled with water and the juice of a lemon works just as well. I just keep my metal in my lemon/water mix until I'm ready to torch my copper. Be sure to clean off any extra bits of lemon pulp - they catch fire :-)


Lemon Water

The video seems to be larger than our blog width. You may need to go to youtube to watch it.


5 comments:

The Blonde One said...

Great info! Question, what do you suggest the copper or brass be coated with? I've tried Krylon Gloss Lacquer, but the metal loses the pretty rainbow colors and is left with the dark oranges. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thx!
Jan

jen said...

Of course it's on the tip of my tongue. I'm just heading off to a class, and the name of the stuff escapes me. I'll let you know later this evening.

jen

Imhere4roy said...

What about Renaissance Wax?

keshi said...

do you remember what you used for leasing/coating the patina? I have a problem finding something not glossy :(

Jennifer Tough said...

Sorry for the delay in responding to this! Yes, I used Renaissance Wax. It gives it a bit of a matte finish, but the colours do remain fairly true.