Here are the results of some of my experimentation with patinating etched copper. Looking back, I learnt a lot about how to work with the media, and had fun experimenting without knowing what the result would be.
I like this little range of jewellery because I think it is a good example of how I take inspiration from feminine influence in the past and use it to produce female jewellery that is contemporary of today. In this case, the influence was floral wallpaper from the likes of William Morris.
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I’ve been thinking alot lately about putting together a range of jewellery that is a cheaper range than what I would normally produce. I am only just starting to make my way into the jewellery scene in South Africa and namely Durban, and so far it seems like people are very hesitant to spend money on contemporary jewellery. I do realise that one has to build up a name for themselves within a specific market and until then it’s generally a slow start. I am delighted however, that wherever I show my jewellery I get very possitive feedback and interest.
Since playing around with patina a few weeks back, I thought it would be a good idea to use etched, patinated copper to produce this cheaper range and use it as a bit of a tester or experiment and see how people respond to it. Personally, I like the look of the pieces for their rugged, worn feel and vibrant colour, and they have been fun to make.
Here are the first few, which will be followed by many more!
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I’ve just been experimenting with different ways of rendering patina, here’s some rough comparisons:
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I wasn’t happy with the outcome of my previous test pieces and so I tried a different solution and method of patina that was much quicker and was much more successful. The outcome was not such a blue blue, but rather a more turquoise blue. Take a look…
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I’d really like to try and get some warm coloured patination somehow, so I did a little experiment on a piece of copper with borax. I covered the metal with borax powder and annealed it, quenching in water straght afterwards and came up with the following affect:
Its quite a nice affect, but once again it doesn’t have a very full surface coverage.
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Over the weekend I left some copper and brass test pieces in an airtight container in tobacco dampened with ammonia and vinegar 3:1 parts. This was to patinate them to a turquoise blue colour. Here are some photos of the pieces, where the colour took it looked great, but I as looking for a more even coverage. I did find however, that the solution ate away at the metal ( not sure if it was too strong?) but it created some interesting effects.
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