Copper patina diy. Patina for copper jewelry. How to patina copper jewelry. How do you make copper look old? How To Patina Copper jewelry Pieces?
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Patina for copper jewelry.
Copper patination, oxidation or patina for copper jewelry is the creation of an artificial oxide film on the surface of the metal. It is used to age copper and brass jewelry, bronze furnishings (for example, parts of caskets or furniture, statuettes). Antique dealers process coins to give them an authentic look after cleaning, when the natural patina is damaged or had to be removed.
Artificial oxide films are similar in composition to natural patina, but some of them rub off easily, so they need to be varnished. There are several ways to treat metal to apply an oxide film to it. Copper patina diy is very easy to do. By the way, patination of brass and copper is carried out in the same way.
Before beginning work, the object should be cleaned, degreased with alcohol or dishwashing detergent, then washed and dried. Objects with embossed details and coins should not be wiped with a cloth after treatment, but dried in sawdust. The cloth wipes off the fragile films, while moisture remains in the recesses, so the color continues to change in them, although not very intensely.
How can I patina copper quickly?
1) Copper patina diy at home can be done in many ways, but the simplest one is thermal. If you place a jet of fire over the surface of the metal, you will get iridescent streaks from pale yellow and orange to purple. As the metal gets hotter, the coloring gets darker. If you don’t have a jewelry blow torch, grip the jewelry in pliers and “dip” it into the edge of the flame on the stove burner. Then dip the red-hot piece in water, and the “faded colors” will become permanent. To keep the coloring from fading, it is usually covered with varnish.
2) For a simple chemical patination, sulfur ointment is used. Put a layer of ointment on the piece and leave it for 3-4 hours, then wash it with soap or dish soap.
A sulfuric ointment is very greasy, so do not use it on objects with reliefs: it is difficult to remove its residue from recesses.
Oxidizing copper in the air will create a dark and weak patina, which is not abrasion-resistant. Apply the composition to objects immersed in water, smearing them with petroleum jelly: the ointment will lay more evenly, and the shade will be weaker.
To remove a bad patina, put the jewelry or coin for 10 minutes in a warm solution of citric acid or wash with laundry soap under running water.
3) Next one is a very interesting method of copper patina diy. A safe and effective way to refine the color of a brooch, ring or coin is to use a boiled egg. Let it cool, put it in a bag, crush it with the shell and put a degreased object into this mixture. After half an hour, the jewelry will have a “patina of antiquity,” and after 5-6 hours a strong iridescent patina will appear.
Copper patina diy. Compound with liver of sulfur
The liver of sulfur is a sodium or potassium sulfur compound obtained by fusing sulfur powder with potash (wood ash) or soda. It is sold in chemical stores in the form of granules, powder, or gel. You can make your own sulfur compound:
Melt 20 g of sulfur and add baking soda to it until the mixture stops bubbling;
Add 50 ml of water, stir and boil for 2 minutes.
When the liquid has settled and cooled, it should be drained, leaving sediment. It should be stored in the refrigerator in a corked opaque jar for 2-3 days. For a solution made of purchased raw materials take 10-20 grams of powder or granules per liter of water. While the gel is applied as is or diluted. The reaction is more active in heated liquid, but you can warm the element itself under a stream of hot water and put it in a cold solution. The color of the film varies from reddish-brown, purple, dark purple to black and depends on concentration, temperature and exposure time.
Copper patination compound can damage some elements in a ring, pendant, earrings. Pearls and some stones – turquoise, agates, jasper are also susceptible to the reagents. So, you should be careful if you want to make patina for copper jewelry.
You can buy a ready-made solution of liver of sulfur.
Oxidize Brass, Bronze, Copper, Sterling Silver – Liver of Sulfur.
This is the no-mess no-fuss Liver of Sulfur Gel. This product is formulated for extended shelf life and convenience. Pay attention to the fact that it is non-hazardous, so it may be used diluted with warm water or you can use it straight from the bottle. The second way is especially useful when you’re short on time or just working on one piece so you don’t need huge amounts of solution. It is very easy to use this way of copper patina diy.
Copper patina diy. Oxidation in ammonia vapor
Ammonia alcohol, or 10% aqueous solution of ammonia, is used for tinting copper in brown, olive color (in the recesses it can sometimes even be blue and black), blotchy blue with copper flecks. If the element is dipped into the solution of table salt before treatment, bright blue or dark-blue blotches will appear on the dark surface.
First, a smooth surface should be ground with sandpaper or a grinder with nozzles. In this case, the film will lie more evenly and its tone will be more uniform. The textured surface should not be sanded – the differences in tone in the recesses and roughness will create an additional artistic effect.
Each of the options for copper patina diy in ammonia vapor has its disadvantages and advantages but the color of the film is not affected by them. Take into account that ammonia can damage tinted agates, malachite, natural pearls, turquoise. But it is not harmful to quartz (amethysts and citrines), garnets, glass and Swarovski crystals.
1) Pour the solution into a shot glass (approximately one cap of a plastic bottle), place it at the bottom of the container, and the items that you want to treat should be placed around the shot glass. Then, the lid should be closed. Usually, copper darkens in 30-60 minutes and acquires a dark olive color. It is convenient to oxidize a large number of pieces this way, but because of the low concentration of ammonia in the air, the process may take from 4 to 6-8 hours for other metals.
2) Put a copper piece in a glass container with ammonia poured on the bottom. To do this, use a wire with cross section of 0.4 or 0.3 mm: its ends should be placed through holes in the lid. With this method, the oxidation takes 10-15 minutes.
If it is not possible to hang an entire object, small parts of it are placed on stands of caps, and large parts are fixed on a frame of wooden sticks. In this way of processing, it is better to patinate not many objects at the same time.
After obtaining the desired shade, take out and rinse the piece. Sometimes the process must be repeated, as the final color of the patina appears when the copper dries. You can coat the finished decoration with wax or spray varnish, such as Krylon Matte Finish. So, this patina for copper jewelry technique is not as complicated as it may seem.
Patination in sawdust
Clean wood waste should be used for this type of patina for copper jewelry. Sawdust from glued plywood cannot be used, as the glue reacts with the patination solution. So, I advise not to use sawdust from glued plywood. In the process of this type of patina, we can achieve the following colors on copper: mottled pink, blue and black shades, and on brass: mottled gold, green or blue, brown, black shades. The solution is prepared from:
16 grams of salt;
300 ml (for brass and other alloys) / 600 ml (for copper) of ammonia alcohol;
700 ml water.
Mix the ingredients and soak the sawdust in the solution – it should be moist but not wet. Place the mixture in a plastic container, dip the product in them, and seal the container. Put a couple of pieces of copper close to the surface of the mixture to control the patination by the color of pieces. Thus, we won’t need to touch the objects that we are treating.
The solution can be used not only with sawdust, but also with other absorbent materials: dry leaves, hay, cat litter. Processing time depends on the material in which the metal is patinated (for copper in the sawdust the time is 4-6 hours, for brass – from 12 hours to days) and the structure of this material. Materials with fine texture should not be stirred (moved) during the process, while the product in leaves or hay should be rotated, so that the coloring goes evenly.
Color intensity and other oxide film parameters are also affected by:
The proportions of ammonia and/or salt.
The moisture of the material. If the sawdust is not wet enough, patination will be weak; if it is too wet, patination will be bad-quality too.
Wash and dry the parts in dry sawdust. Prepared mixture (of sawdust) can be used for several days, and the solution in an airtight container in the refrigerator or cellar is stored for quite a long time.
Electrochemical method
“Rainbow”) electrochemical patination is not used for aging, but to decorate products. Its shades depend on the voltage, electrolyte temperature, exposure time, surface texture. A car battery can be used as a current source: “plus” is applied to the copper rod anode, “minus” is applied to the workpiece.
To prepare the electrolyte you will need 60 g of copper sulfate, 90 g of raffinate, 45 g of caustic soda and distilled water. We will have to work wearing rubber gloves, a respirator and goggles – the solution is so caustic that it could be used to clean the plumbing. Patination is carried out with the opened windows in a room with powerful ventilation.
Applying a ready-made aging solution
This method is the fastest, because the solution itself does not need to be prepared by yourself, it is sold ready-made. Since the aging solution contains substances that are harmful to the skin, don’t forget to wear gloves and safety glasses.
Brass Black Metal Finish for aging copper, made by the American company Birchwood Casey
Different solutions may have different information about how much of the liquid should be diluted, but you should always follow the instructions on the label of the product you purchased.
When the preparatory processes are completed, you can start processing the copper product. To do this, you need to dip the copper item several times in the solution at different angles, so that the entire surface of the product was covered with the solution. It is necessary to make sure that there were no bubbles, as because of them there may be light colored spots on the product.
Repeat this procedure until the desired color is obtained. Overexposure or, on the contrary, taking too early from the solution is not a problem, because if the desired color is not achieved, it is possible to treat it with a scraper and then dip it again. At the end of the process, the copper should be dried and treated with varnish, if it is necessary to consolidate the achieved result.
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