13/01/2018 Patinated Vase & Earrings
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Although it didn’t suit my final architectural design, I really wanted to make something with the ammonia-vinegar-sawdust patina I tried right at the start of the module. The mottled greeny blue effect really suited the sailing/sea theme. A cylindrical vase was the obvious choice as we’d had a cylinder forming and stick soldering demonstration, but hadn’t tried it ourselves. Plus I'd come across the work of Lex Pott whilst researching patinas and loved the simplicity of his cylindrical pieces.
So I took a piece of copper (that was a failed brick texture attempt) rolled it flat, cut it to size, and bent it into a full cylinder with the sheet bender in the BA process room (as it was too narrow for the one in the basement). |
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My first (pitiful) attempt at stick soldering.
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I then attempted to stick solder the seam. Sam made it look so easy when she showed us. The metal needs to be really red hot all over and I found it hard not to practically paint the whole surface in molten solder, rather than letting a tiny bead flow down the seam.
But it worked in the end, so I finished it off with a round base. After buffing (I didn't bother polishing as the patina would cover it up anyway) I mixed up my ammonia, vinegar & sawdust and packed it round the vase. I left it overnight to stew and a perfect mottled patina emerged in the morning. Whilst I was at it, I made some earrings with the same patina because I'd found some pear shaped azurite cabochons that looked exactly the same. The match is too good to be true :-) |
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