Trying Out Patinas

Turning Copper Green and Blue

Patina is what happens to copper and silver and other metals over time. The color of the metal changes because of the chemical reactions between the metal and the environment.  It takes many years for copper to turn green, especially where I am from in Iowa. I discovered this a few years ago when I made a rain chain for my mother-in-law and the copper turned very dark and even black in some places.  Eventually it will get some green but now I know how to speed up the process!

I have had a lot of fun learning about how to speed up patinas on copper. I have to give thanks to all the free information on the internet and in my books and hopefully this information will help you too.   After researching many recipes, I found some that I thought I could actually try with stuff I had in the house. I also wanted to work with ingredients that were not toxic and I really like the idea of creating the recipe myself as opposed to buying a jar of something pre-made. Please share what you have tried and let me know your results.

Ammonia, vinegar and salt and surprisingly saw dust are the ingredients used in different combinations to get copper to turn green or blue/green.  So far, they all turned out great, but I can generally scratch off the green with my fingernail so all material will probably need to be coated with a lacquer.

Buried Patina:
*I apologize that I can not find the actual web site that I found this information from, however I have found many others with slight variations of the bury method.  I will keep looking because I want to link to the site so the proper person gets credit. Even though she didn't invent the method but like me was just passing the information along in her blog.

 If you want a textured patina try easy, kitchen friendly Buried Patina For Blue color on copper: Add 1 part Vinegar to 4 parts Ammonia and saturate hardwood sawdust until media clumps together in a sandwich size zip-lock baggie filled with saw dust. Bury metal in media and seal the bag. Place in a warm spot and check each day to see if the color appears and is to your liking. When the color is right for you, let the piece dry out before using or sealing.  The "texture" comes from where the saturated sawdust comes in contact with the copper.

For Green color on copper: Add 1 part Vinegar to 3 parts Ammonia and saturate until media clumps together in a sandwich size zip-lock baggie filled sawdust or rolling tobacco. Bury metal in media and seal the bag. Place in a warm spot and check each day to see if the color appears and is to your liking.

For Bright turquoise color on copper:  Add 1 cup ammonia, 1 cup rock salt, ½ cup tap water to cotton squares until media clumps together and bury metal, seal bag, place in warm area, check each day

If you want a transparent patina to be able to see textures or etching try Liver of Sulphur (LOS) or other transparent patinas.Some of the above info came from books by Jinks McGrath

Painting vinegar/salt and ammonia/salt on copper works too. I simply painted the liquid on the copper, let it dry and reapplied. I did this at least three times and came up with some great results.

I was able to remove some of the patina with my fingernail. You can resolve this by working with  this method longer and making more applications and then seal the copper with lacquer or a fixative.

Ammonia with salt also gave a similar shade of green. This was really fun!