My first career choice, when I was 8, was “MAD” SCIENTIST. Emphasis on “MAD”. Find out what happens when you combine house hold chemicals with ammonia and salt. seememake.com
Eternally grateful to you for a series of these videos. I had a course on surface treatment in jewelry school and tested a huge bunch of stuff (not as many as you though, it wasn't the only technique we explored!) and it was cool to see what the patinas did to copper and brass and then see how the texturing extras act. Doing that in groups and experimenting helps a lot because you are numerous to test and see various stuff! Ochre looks like a fantastic thing to try. I got dry pigments of several different hues from my trip to Roussillon where they are made. Yellow, tones of red and darker brown. Sounds like a plan. :)
I was hesitant to bring this up at first, but you seem adventurous enough to try it - personally it was my go-to patina solution: pee. Urine has both salts AND ammonia.
I love your videos. very instructional. If you want to try something new, paint with blotches of Colman's Mustard at Pier Imports. At different time intervals, the mustard creates rings of gold as the mustard sticks to the copper, like glue with rings forming at the edges. very cool if you mix with Ochre / sample you passed! Good luck. Keep creating!
You might want to experiment with different types of soy sauce! For example, Chinese soy sauce is saltier than Japanese (Kikkoman). On the other hand, the Japanese cook with both a standard soy sauce and also with a variation called “usukuchi” soy sauce, which is thinner and saltier, along the lines of Chinese soy sauce. Thai fish sauce is also very salty (and stinky!) I wonder how copper might react with these various types of sauces.
Can anybody clarify the soy sauce one...? I'm not following- did she apply soy sauce to the copper and let it "cook" suspended over a cup of ammonia? Or is there no ammonia in the one, but instead she just put this piece in a cup of soy sauce...?
Awesome progression. Thank you. I have a question. At 8:55 in Part 2d, can you tell me whether you sprayed water, ammonia or vinegar on the Salted plate on the left? And on this plate you did not use yellow ochre or salt, just the undiluted solution (w,a, or v) sprayed and cooked in Ammonia for 72 hours? Thanks for clarifying. I got lost. You started with yellow ochre and salt then switched to just solution sprays and then jumped to the 72 hour section. Thank you.
Hello Rajiv, the plate on the left is just water and yellow ochre... the plate on the right is water, yellow ochre and salt. Both cooked for 72 hours. Nicole.
