I have been using Rio’s red-black for achieving a brown/black patina
on copper, with decent results. However, the last two pieces I worked
on had definite, very noticable blue tints. They were acceptable in
the context of the piece, but not something I want to see in the
future. Is there something I am doing to cause this, or is this just
what I should expect in using this product? Also, if anyone has
another commercially-prepared brown patina to recommend, I would
appreciate hearing about it.
Another patina to try for a brown color on copper is Baldwins
patina, available from Reactive Metals. I really like it for
contrast coloring on silver and copper mokume gane.
I’ve never used a commercial solution to achieve a brown patina on
copper, though I’ve achieved great results from a common grocery
store item: peanut oil. Just brush it on (or spray it with one of
those nifty pump atomizers for cooking oils) and take a nice, bushy
flame to it. Bonus: it makes your studio smell like popcorn.
Mmmmmm…
Sorry folks, I’m just now catching up on almost a months worth of
the Orchid digest and I already know that I’ve lost a bunch of stuff.
Don’t ya just love those cute fuzzy internet gremlins? Enough of my
whining.
I imagine that someone else has already mentioned this but I haven’t
caught up so please bear with me. I tried Tim McCreight’s ( The
Complete Metalsmith…good book!) idea of using peanut oil on
copper and heating it till you get the desired color. I got the most
beautiful reddish browns on my test pieces. I did learn that
subsequent soldering, depending on duration and time exposure to the
torch, can really mess those pretty colors up. No big loss for me,
like I said, they were test pieces. Do your soldering and
construction first and then go for the peanut oil colors.