On the Hughes/Rowe book "The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals:
Ted, I hate to differ with yo on the best patina book, but I find the
book you have suggested is a VERY POOR choice. Nice for the coffee
table but as a useful book for patinas, it is a VERY hit and miss
item. Was and is expensive, many, and I mean MANY formulas/directions
do not work or do not work very well.
I’ve owned a copy of this book since 1996 when I was doing a lot of
weavingwith metal wire. I have to agree that as a recipe book, it’s
not very accurate in places. I had the worst trouble trying to
duplicate recipes from that book. It might be the strength of
solution or heating time or… well, who knows.
I found it very frustrating. It’s definitely not one I’d use in a
class setting without a LOT of testing first.
I would look at the Interweave Press book on Patina by Runfola.
There was a whole subset of weavers who jumped into weaving metal
wire (and plastics and paper and every other substance that we could
wrap around each other) which is why Interweave put out a book on
it. All of us were frustrated with just using plain copper or silver
wire.
Metal dyes? There are metal dyes now? That’s one of the coolest
things that I’ve heard in years and almost make me want to drop
everything and warp one of my smaller looms with dyed wire.
J Reese