Blue Patina on Copper

Intro: Blue Patina on Copper

Colour plays a large role in design esthetics.  There are many ways to add colour into Jewellery work,  applying patinas are one of the simplest methods; requiring very little equipment or in some kinds expense.  Copper takes a patina especially well. Every metal has its own personality; I like to think of Copper as an Old, Smelly, Dirty, Drunk, Homeless Man; if you've worked with it, you understand why.  Because Copper is such a dirty Metal it likes to oxidize; in simple terms: put it next to a chemical and it will react by changing colours.  This process is called Patination.

There are hundreds of Chemical Patina Recipes; many requiring expensive, hard to find and potentially dangerous Chemicals, all things I like to avoid whenever possible.  Instead, my favorite Patinas are made by more common household chemicals.  My current favorite household patina, is a brilliant blue made by using:  

1. Clear Ammonia (found in the cleaning aisle of your local grocery store)
2. Table salt
3. Water

STEP 1: Making a Fume Chamber

First you will need to construct a fume chamber.  Find a plastic container with a lid (clear if possible), large enough to hold your Copper in.  The Copper will need to be suspended in the container; drill or poke holes in the sides of the container large enough to slide a bit of wire through (any type of wire will do).  Depending on what you wish to patina, you will have to customize the hanging mechanism; I used two wires to support the sheet evenly.

At the bottom of the fume chamber place a bit of paper towel.  Dribble some Ammonia on it; you want it moist but do not soak it. Warning - inhaling Ammonia fumes can be harmful.


The Fume chamber is now ready for use.

STEP 2: Preparing the Copper

It is essential the Copper be free of Oxides, Grease and Dirt; otherwise the Patina will not work.  There are many ways to prepare metal for Patination.  In the case of my simple Flower, emerying with 220 grit will do the trick.  Other methods that work: scrubbing with a past mixture of pumice  powder and water or heating and pickling followed by cleaning with soap and water; will also work. Which ever method you choose, always handle carefully during and after; hold by the edges so as not to transfer grease from your fingers.

STEP 3: Adding Water and Table Salt

Run the Copper under water and sprinkle a small amount of table salt onto the side or sides you wish to patina.  The resulting patina will vary depending on how much salt you use; do some experimenting and see what the results are.

STEP 4: Going Through the Stages

Carefully place your copper in the fume chamber and close the lid; again avoid touching the the copper, hold by the edges only.  Your Patina is finished when you are happy with the colour; it may take an hour or two or a day or two.

STEP 5: Sealing the Patina

Once you are happy with the patina, remove the copper from the fume chamber.  The patina will be very fragile so handle delicately. Allow to thoroughly dry.  Most patinas are a surface treatment which can be rubbed off and must be sealed with a lacquer or wax of some kind. My favorite is Pro-craft Lacquer (available at most Jewellery supply stores), applied in 4 or 5 thin layers. Warning - When using Lacquers always have adequate ventilation; the fumes can be harmful.

Read more free jewellery making tutorials at Creatinglinus.com

Comments

[NickyButler]

how do i protect polished brass from taking on the patina im trying to put on the copper that is soldered to the brass?

[jmcoggins]

If you submit the brass and copper combination to the same treatment at the same time, you will not be able to keep the brass in a golden state. What you need to to is to apply a "resist" to the copper. I use masking tape to mask the brass (or silver or whatever other metal you are using), but you can use another type is you can be sure it covers the brass completely. If the brass piece is irregular in shape, use your scissors or Exacto knife to cut the tape to fit. When you take the piece out of your container and let it dry, if some of the brass has some patina anyway, you can take a brass brush or emery stick or cloth and buff it off. BTW, I have done several pieces like this, and the combination of patinaed copper and bright, shiny brass is beautiful! Good luck.

[NellBennett]

Thanks for the useful tips about using household products. Do you know what household products might work on Brass to get a similar vibrant effect? Thanks

[jdsmithh]

Same process works on brass too. This was done only with Ammonia, Sea Salt, and Vinegar. I put them in sealed container with the Ammonia in a small cup, brushed vinegar on the pieces with small paint brush, then sprinkled the sea salt on the pieces. The light blue knife scales are brass, the darker blue are copper. I already put a clear coat on the brass ones, which I only recommend on stuff that will have a lot of contact like pocket knife scales that will be in and out of pockets, causing the patina to rub off.

[Debi9]

As you can see I have a lot of salt stuck to it

[dizingof]

Very Cool.
I've been developing a Metal Skin prototype (electroforming) for quite some time (Growing strong Metal on 3D printed plastic) and yesterday i tweeted these photos of a popular Octopus, gaining bluish patina just by tap water rinse and iron sulfate fumes. Amazing results.
https://twitter.com/dizingof/status/961237304336617472

Dizingof

[lucas.lavoy]

Thanks for making this great tutorial. Used this technique recently on a coffee table with fumed copper surface and it came out great

[JenniferA192]

Did you seal this after the patina?

[lucas.lavoy]

Yes, just ordinary clear coat

[mjohn10244]

Great table...how did you do the edges/corners to have them come out smooth?

Are there multiple sheets of copper or one large one and did you patina with ammonia or salt and vinegar/

thanks

Mike

[lucas.lavoy]

Mike, the table is a rectangular wood core covered with patinated copper sheet (16 gauge) laminated to the core after being patinated. The top is 9 separate plates of copper of different dimensions that fit together to cover the whole top. Sides of the table are also separate 16 guage copper strips laminated to the sides. Patination for all the pieces was 2 stages done in a large airtight plastic tub. First stage ammonia fume only, then a rinse to remove the non-adherent bits, then a second round with vinegar + salt in addition to the ammonia fume.

[RJB14]

very nice

[MithunK13]

Hi How did u make this without using air tight chamber? Or what was it that u covered the table top with?

[ChrisC19]

What prep did you use and how did you apply your salt lucas.lavoy? I followed the above method and my coverage looks nothing like yours! Great job!

[lucas.lavoy]

Just standard spray bottle with salt water (lots of it), came up bright blue. The difference was I scrubbed off the unstable parts of the patina afterwards and did a second application and second fume chamber exposure. Somehow that made it much more green than blue.

[Laral]

I posted this a while ago but I think this is a good place to re-post it. What I like about it is it works fast and you can just paint or spray the solution on any part you want.

Have a look at: https://web.archive.org/web/20080108073034/http://asuwlink.uwyo.edu/~metal/patinas.html
-- the second formula:

• 1 Tbsp ammonium chloride (Sal ammoniac)
  
• 1 Tbsp salt
  
• 1 oz ammonia
  
• 1 qt. bottled or distilled water
  

Mix all in a plastic container that will be only for the patina mix and
not used for other things. Warm or hot water will help the solids
dissolve better. Spray the patina on the clean oil free copper and let
set for 2 or 3 hours to dry then repeat 3 or so more times until you get
what you want. You can also soak sawdust with the patina and pack it
around the copper piece and seal it in a plastic bag for a day or 3.

I got a sal ammoniac block from Ace at the time
but I don't see it now at their website. I found that eBay has ammonium
chloride powder cheaper than what I paid for the block. It would also
dissolve much easier than the hard block.

Very easy to do, cheap, works great.

Here is my sample done on a copper tubing end cap.

[RJB14]

force patina copper with pink himalayan salt and aquarium salt in same style fume chamber

[RJB14]

pink himalayan salt brings out some good blues as does aquarium salt

[KarinC13]

thanks, great instructions.

[RebeccaW88]

I have tried this several times and the first time I got this beautiful shade of blue - like the pictures. But since then, I've tried repeatedly and it keeps turning black. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?