More Red Patina on Copper

I tried the torch heating and borax method of adding a red patina to copper again.  I textured the piece of copper first and then heated it from the back. My goal is to get my process to the point where I am getting consistent results.  Practice, practice, practice!

I started out with a piece of copper sheet - keeping the pieces relatively small until I get a feel for the heat needed to make this happen consistently.  I did discover that in my experiments today - the torch has to be hot and the heat has to be constant to create an even red once quenched in the borax.  I clean the copper with vinegar and salt and then some fine sandpaper (I have found that works better than a scotchbrite) before I start heating it.  I heat the copper until it is glowing orange and then immediately drop it in the borax bath. I have also found that heating a piece of copper again (after it has been scrubbed clean with the sandpaper and water) does not, for some reason, work at all. No matter how hot I heat it, it doesn't get red.  Odd.

There is a lot I do not know about this process - so I have been changing things up as I heat and quench each piece.  I change the borax and water every two pieces or so - I am not sure if that affects the efficacy of the borax bath though.  

I did a fair number of pieces today and this is the only one that retained the red patina.  I even tumbled it for 2 hours in steel shot, dawn and water. I am only slightly discouraged :), and will definitely keep trying.

The Plumbing Aisle.....

..........offered up it's treasure - I'm not entirely sure what it is - some sort of hanger or bracket or something - but it screamed out "jewelry" to me!  I bought three of them not knowing what I would do or what I would be able to do with them so they sat next to me on my bench while I figured it out.

I stretched one out and buffed and shined it - thought it might look good with some gemstones in it.........

I used some luscious large magnesite, garnet and sterling silver............I liked it but wasn't sure how I would attach it - the wire works but I can't get it to look messy enough (you know, that "chaos" look that some wire wrappers excel at - well, I don't) or neat enough, so put that aside while I thought about it.

flattened one of them and then buffed and shined it up (I just LOVE my new bench grinder) - I'm thinking a bracelet for this piece;

I found my leather stamps (I used to tool leather in a previous incarnation and have accumulated a number of stamps) and used one of them to stamp a design into the copper - random though it is;

and wrapped some cute little rondelle gemstones I got from Szarka (a fantastic buy - a strand of mixed gemstones - all sorts of colors and stones) and fastened on a cute little copper heart clasp.  It's a rough prototype - next time I want to rivet the holes (once I get to that lesson :-)) and I will hopefully have my new letter stamps so I will do something different on the copper.

Now, going back to the copper and magnesite piece I was thinking about.........

While rooting around in my stuff, I found some copper brads, or maybe they are a sort of rivet - I got them a while ago with the idea that I would learn how to use them, but they seemed to fit this idea perfectly.  So, I used some sterling silver wire to string the stones on (I left off the garnet - it just didn't fit into the cup of the copper thingy), put the end of the wire over the hole in the copper thingy, placed a brass nut over that and the copper brad/rivet thingy over everything; flipped the piece over and hammered the brad/rivet flat.

I hosed up the other end - very badly - so rather than call it a complete waste, I just kept experimenting (I now know what NOT to do, heh heh heh) and fashioned a sort of pendant.  Or something.  Whatever.  It was fun and I got to do a lot of banging and buffing and the likes.