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New Ways with Patina You Must Try! This Issue is a KEEPER!....More JOOL LOOT, too!
April 4, 2010
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More Experimentation, Safety and Mixed Results
Wow, what a bunch of great ideas for you this week! You'll want to print a copy of this week's letter and keep it in a binder in your workshop.
Experimenting with patina can be simple or it can be complicated....just depends on what you want to do with it. But rest assured there are numerous ways to work with raw as well as yes! finished brass that are not highly toxic, if at all. Those are the ones I like to focus on: something that is most likely to have a fun result and that should not make you sick if you use it with a *little caution* and *good sense*.
In the photo above is a picture of a barpin finding I dipped in liver of sulfur last winter. This is a piece that had been plated in the silverware silverplated finish. Just on a lark, I threw it in the bath to see what happened. I truly did not expect this result.
It turned----very very quickly, I might add!---this lovely pale gunmetal color with strong blue highlights.
In this week's issue, we're going to give you a recipe on how to achieve this and iridescent colored patina on the silverware silverplated finish, which has a very high silver content. We will also discuss how to use the same patina bath to achieve iridis and patina on brass.
Keep a few things in mind when using these recipes:
BE SAFE. Liver of sulfur is, of all the chemical-type baths, one of the least noxious but it is NOT non-toxic. It can smell very bad, like rotten eggs. When you add ammonia to it to make the iridis, you should wear shop goggles to protect your eyes in case of splashing, and you should have a fan going, overhead exhaust or windows open. Ventilation is important. Do not breathe the fumes. Since we're in better weather now, if are able to go outdoors to use it, so much the better.
I would not do this project if you have an illness that involves your lungs, or asthma. These patina projects are also not for children. Please do not work at them with children present.....any one who has children knows, with kids, anything can happen. It's not worth the risk.
Keep the mixture off your skin as it will indeed cause irritation.
THE RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED. Given my own experience with this sort of patina, I feel quite confident in saying that these recipes are going to work out in most cases for most people.
However, part of the learning process is trial and error. Some of the best new ideas and inventions have sprung from mistakes! Be willing to fail, and try again. It's part of the journey. If it doesn't work out the first time, read the instructions carefully again, and give it another go.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
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New Ways with Patina on RAW BRASS....Gorgeous Color from the Liver of Sulfur Bath!
Here's another great photo that Celeste has let me borrow, so I could show more of her patina experiments.
All of these pieces were raw brass without plating; some she purchased from us and some, not. A few are vintage pieces in the gingerbread patina (which is still raw brass but has achieved a dark patina over the years of being stored.)
All the directions from the side bar for doing patina over silverware finish are the same EXCEPT:
You absolutely must first TOTALLY degrease the piece. This means scrubbing down with a greenie in degreaser and thoroughly rinsing. If you have done that and you still see water beading up on the pieces, *they are not clean and perfectly degreased*.....so you will have clean them some more.
Also, with raw brass, it also helps to not only keep the water warm on a candle/cup warmer, but it doesn't hurt to WARM THE PIECE first, either. You can do that with a blow dryer or an embossing gun.
Brass does not take patina from liver of sulfur as quickly as silver, sterling, or copper. You may have to let it sit for a long time, even up to an hour. So in this case you could do a little multi-tasking!
Celeste says she used the same solution that she used to do the silverware finish prior, so she wonders if *a little* of the iridis came from silver that deposited in the bath. That's where you will have to experiment and see.
Also, keep in mind that liver of sulfur solutions break down fairly quickly and lose their strength. So if you have any trouble getting the patina to 'take' it could be the the solution just isn't strong enough any more, or perhaps you will need to add a little more dry liver of sulfur to the warm water when you are doing brass.
Don't forget, once the color has properly developed to suit you, neutralize it in cool, plain water and then let it set and dry. Once dry, you will absolutely have to seal it or it will be totally transient. I would do this with a little Renaissance Wax on a buff rag, and do not forget to seal and buff out BOTH SIDES of the piece.
Another way to seal it is with matte spray lacquer. If you use any acrylic paints over the patina to enhance your work, matte spray lacquer is the better way to go.
Have fun and let me know how it works out for you!
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What's New In Stock and Back in Stock
Two pix for you this week! As you can see, the brass ox tulip beads are back in stock, the necklace crescents for drilling, rivetting and collage (upside down in the pic, ugh!) are back, the acorn centerpiece and the brass ox bell charms, 13mm bezels, 18mm bamboo bezels, Mr. Feathery owl in silverware silverplate, Wild Victorian Chicks huge plaque findings, pensive Alphonse Mucha lady, Russian goldplated earring hangers and bell caps, too. NOT PICTURED: Russian goldplated Oui and Amour French charms; Elongated "Gossamer Wing Pairs" in rgp, Lacey Round filigree and the gorgeous European style filigree butterfly in the rgp finish are also back in stock.
NEW THIS WEEK:
Eyelet setting tool with five packs of mixed and colored eyelets and washers
Tim Holtz Word Keys These are the heavy cast three-d ox-plated key pendants that you have seen in some of my projects. They are very cool focals, seven in a pack, you'll love them all.
Several new styles of flower power parts for layering and rivetting, both in plated product and raw brass
Lace Edge Bezels and rivet-through bezels
BACK because you wanted it: formerly discontinued! brox07406 centerpiece plaque....along with several other large Victorian style plaques that make good focals. Find them all in the brass ox section.
FIG2 is a raw brass twig finding that makes a funky-cool toggle end, also great in mixed media arts.
Bezel39 is a must have.....lovely Victorian style open backed bezel with four prongs. It's top hanging, makes a great centerpiece and fits our 25mm art bubble PERFECTLY!!! Make magnifying glass style pendants, or bond images to the backs of the bubbles with diamond glaze to add a photo or picture to your pendant.
In silverware finish:
silwar07105 large Lady Godiva
silwar07101 Medium Size 50's Style He Who Holds Key to My Heart
silwar07220 Belle Epoque Hot Air Balloon Pendants, 34x26mm size
silwar 07218 Art Nouveau Elongated Lilly Plaque (see this piece with the iridized treatment in the photo on the sidebar, top right corner)
We continue to add new things to What's On Sale every week, and have begun to add more Sample Lots to that section. These are lots that we would have commonly offered on Ebay in the past; now that we have a better, faster uploading system for the website, you will see more of them at http://www.bsueboutiques.com
Always cool for you, since even a smaller 25.00 order can use that BSUE2 coupon and get a fast 5.00 savings.
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Even MORE Jool Loot to Give Away
 I packed so much jool loot and still have more to pack.....so let's just have another week of JOOL LOOT freebies!
Be sure to put JOOL LOOT in the MEMO BOX of any order placed at our website through midnight April 11 and I will send you a bag of goodies right straight out of my own workshop....could be handmade beads, could be chain, could be charms, could be stampings....for sure it's a mix great stuff.
Never had one person complain yet....and best of all, it's free.
SO....don't forget to ask for it!
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Who Won the March Monthly Drawing
 Well, one thing is for sure....
Meep the cat could care less! LOL
Celeste Sheets of Cincinnati, Ohio won the drawing which was announced on my website bright and early Thursday morning, via my Twitter feed.
Ever since then she and I have been going back and forth about her marvelous patina discoveries, which she so graciously has allowed me to share WITH YOU.
I feel like I was the one who got the prize this month!
I'd been playing around with our high-silver content plating (silverware silverplate finish) and had already discovered that you could darken it, even turn it a pale gunmetal blue, with liver of sulfur. Celeste took it to the next level by adding just a tablespoon or two of ammonia to the bath.....and sharing the results with us.
Don't worry Celeste.....I won't be sending you my cat!
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***************************************************************************** Just a coupla things:
*You must put that BSUE2 code in the
promotional code box on the checkout to make it work.* It doesn't work
if you put it in the memo box (the freebie code goes there) and it won't
work if you only mention it on your PayPal payment.
See more info on how it works in the coupon box directly below.
The **freebie code** goes in the memo box, where the checkout asks you if you have something you want to say to me with your order.
If you ever don't know the freebie code for the week, just put "Give me whatever is free this week" and I'll send it.
Ask me if you have any questions!
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My best to each and every one!
Brenda Sue Lansdowne
B'sue Boutiques
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 Check out the crazy patina you can do RIGHT OVER our silverware silverplated finish. I wrote Celeste Sheets about winning the goody box for March, on Thursday. It wasn't long before she sent me a series of detailed emails describing her experiments with patina over brass INCLUDING going right over our silverware silverplate finish. I've been mentioning for sometime now that I had done some limited experimentation with it and found that it did nicely in a dunk of warm liver of sulfur solution (see other column.) But Celeste took it up a notch with the addition of a little bit of *ammonia* to the patina bath. Here's the way she does it: RECIPE 2 cups of WARM water a good pinch (Celeste says a pinky-fingernail full) of dry liver of sulfur 1-2 tablespoons of ammonia Put these ingredients together in this order, in a glass bowl. Clean-prep the pieces to be sure they are free of dirt by rinsing in hot water and a greenie (Scotch Brite) pad. In order to maintain the patina bath at a warm temperature, it doesn't hurt to put the glass bowl on an electric candle, or cup warmer. The patina will take relatively quickly in this case; usually anything with a high silver content, sterling, or copper will oxidize pretty fast in liver of sulfur....so you're not going to want to go away and watch television or cook dinner while it's soaking. Celeste mentions she likes to play around with it and let it set for differing amounts of time as it can make a difference in how deep the iridescent color comes up. Don't forget: when you take it out of the liver of sulfur bath, you *must* neutralize in cool water, so have a glass dish of water ready. After you neutralize and dry your piece, you may want to buff it out a little again with the greenie pad. Sometimes Celeste will dunk the piece again in the liver of sulfur bath and do several buffings, to get just the look she wants. In most cases, she says, the lighter colors --like gold and pink--come from less time in the bath, while colors like dark blue, green and grey-black come from a longer time in the bath. She also notes that some pieces 'take' better than others, so you kind of have to play with it. It appears as though everything above in the photo has really come up nicely. Again, everything in the above photo is a piece plated with our TRUE DESIGNER FINISH, Silverware Silverplate. Check the other column for more info on how to do this over raw brass for optimum results. Thank you, Celeste, for all your ideas, the recipe and especially, allowing me to use your photos! |
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Featured Article
TROUBLESHOOTING PATINA PROBLEMS
I've had a few readers write me to tell me that the home vinegar and salt patina recipe wasn't working out so great for them.
If that's been the case for you, it's probably one of a few very simple things:
1. BE SURE the goods are properly degreased. If water is still beading up on the pieces when you have cleaned them, start over, there is still machine oil from the production die equipment on them, and this will work as a resist to the patina process.
2. Soak the brass good in at least one part of salt to five parts dark cider vinegar. I like to use coarse sea salt, but anything will work.
3. Be sure you bake them for at least 20 minutes in at least a 450 degree oven. If nothing is happening, continue baking, even turning the oven up a little.
4. If the pieces are very dimensional, like a deeply rivetted layered piece, or perhaps a very FLAT piece, like a striking base, the patina may not take well. Vinegar and salt patina works best on highly detailed stampings and delicate filgree. I think I would try Celeste's recipe on say, a rivetted tea rose (actually she has a few in her photo, above) or flat striking base.
Keep working at it, I'm SURE you will eventually achieve great results and perhaps even learn something totally NEW in the process!
Oh and BTW, all of the pieces in the picture above were done with the vinegar and salt method, buffed out with a coarse old washrag, and then Smooch acrylic inks over top for accent. All were sealed with matte acrylic lacquer.
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Featured Article
A RELOAD of that TIM HOLTZ KEY PENDANT
There was so much commentary on this key pendant the week I ran the picture, that I decided to go ahead and carry the Tim Holtz dimensional keys as a set.
Again, you can see with just a little vintage bronze wire and a charm or two, you can in very little time make something very imaginative with this key as a base.
The keys come in a set of seven. They are large and dimensional and say a whole bunch of things, each one is different.
You'll find them in the WHAT'S NEW section right on my homepage at http://www.bsueboutiques.com
The SKU (item) number is wordkeys
Try some and HAVE FUN!!
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Hey.....don't ever forget your BSUE2 coupon code! If you remember it, you can get 5.00 off any order 25.00 or more!
Put that in the PROMOTIONAL CODE box in the checkout, and remember...IT'S CASE SENSITIVE.
THIS CODE IS RECYCLABLE....meaning, it's not here this week and gone next. You can use it once a day, if you like! But, you MUST enter it into the box to get the discount, I can't do it after the fact. Just like the grocery store, you gotta bring your coupons to the checkout!
AND.....IF YOU ARE A VOLUME CRAFTER:
250.00 and up automatically gets 10 percent off
500.00 and up automatically gets 15 percent off
No codes necessary, you hit the numbers, the site responds. No tax ID necessary unless you are in Ohio.
Special orders over 250.00 qualify for 10 percent off.
Questions? Just write me at bsue1441@aol.com!
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