Experimenting with copper patina colors - my latest build! (pic heavy)
Posted: May 3rd, 2019, 1:46 am
One of my first real attempts to modify and make my own watch was one I made eight years ago, a skeleton movement with a copper ring as a dial, it was one of my few posts in the old forum. I really liked the idea and had fun building it, so during the past few years I made some more with the same concept.
I didn't have any build threads here on the new forum so when I got the itch once again to make another one, I thought it would be nice to post the process here. It's a long post so bear with me as I go through it!
I had made the same concept using copper, bronze and steel rings with different color combinations, and there was no other metal I could think of, which would have a really different natural color I could use, so I thought of trying to get a new color using patinas.
I wanted to try and get a blueish color this time and I knew that copper is a good metal to use for this, it could react with Ammonia and acetic acid to produce shades of blue, so after doing a little bit of research I made several attempts to find what the best approach is.
The first attempt was done using salt, ammonia and vinegar and I tried to see if it was possible to preserve the copper color in some areas so I dabbed a small amount of Vaseline on a few spots to see if it is able to prevent the reaction. Salt was directly on the surface and was saturated with mixture of ammonia and vinegar, with a cotton ball soaked in ammonia placed next to the copper ring. Everything was placed in an airtight container.
Below is the result after 24 hours. It is a very strange reaction resulting in a colorful pattern but was not what I was aiming for.
I sanded the ring and had another go, this time I used a different method. I didn't use any Vaseline, the copper was cleaned up completely and Instead of saturating the salt with vinegar and ammonia mixture, I only wet the surface of the metal with vinegar, sprinkled some salt on top and place another container with ammonia next to it, ammonia fumes are absorbed by the salt and react with the metal in this reaction.
The result was very beautiful but unfortunately the ring was slightly smaller than the original cut size because it was eaten up by the reaction twice and was not a perfect fit for the case anymore, also some of the edges were not uniform. I realized that any duration of reaction more than 24 hours would damage the copper ring (thickness is 0.5mm)
So I made a third attempt with a new ring, using the same ingredients and method. It also came out pretty nice, but before proceeding any further, I wanted to experiment with fixation of the patina. I knew that some jewelry makers lightly dust these sorts of patinas with clear coat or wax them for preservation, but for me that wouldn't work, I needed to have a thick layer of clear coat so I had a test run on the ring from the second attempt, and it wasn't promising. The patina immediately lost its beautiful blue color and soaked up all the clear coat, and darkened in a lot of areas. This wasn't going to work because I needed the ring to have a lighter color because I was going to use decals to add the text to it and it wouldn't be legible.
To sum up, here are the problems with working with copper patina:
1) results and the colors are almost always random and uncontrollable, so if you need any specific shade or pattern, you most likely won't get it
2) the patina is very fragile so by the time you clean up the piece to remove the excess salt, you will lose some of the color and texture.
3) the fixation is a real problem if you need anything more than light dusting of clear coat on top of the patina, it will readily soak up the paint and get ruined if it's a heavy coat of paint.
So I had to change my approach. after some thought I realized that I was going to get the best results if I use the salt, vinegar and ammonia fuming method to get a patina texture and then use paint on top of the patina layer to get the colors I wanted. The patina layer would give a realistic texture underneath, and then I wouldn't have to worry about the colors changing or darkening after applying the clear coats, and I could completely control how it would look in the end.
Below you can compare the one I painted to the one where clear coat completely darkened the patina and the applied text is almost indistinguishable (on the top right)
I'm done with the long explanation, here is the rest of the build for your enjoyment.
And here is the final result, (I'm still looking around for a better strap
)
if you want to know more about patination check this book out, for me I think it was a good reference: Matthew Runfola - Patina - 2014
Please let me know what you think about the watch and this process in general!
Cheers
I didn't have any build threads here on the new forum so when I got the itch once again to make another one, I thought it would be nice to post the process here. It's a long post so bear with me as I go through it!
I had made the same concept using copper, bronze and steel rings with different color combinations, and there was no other metal I could think of, which would have a really different natural color I could use, so I thought of trying to get a new color using patinas.
I wanted to try and get a blueish color this time and I knew that copper is a good metal to use for this, it could react with Ammonia and acetic acid to produce shades of blue, so after doing a little bit of research I made several attempts to find what the best approach is.
The first attempt was done using salt, ammonia and vinegar and I tried to see if it was possible to preserve the copper color in some areas so I dabbed a small amount of Vaseline on a few spots to see if it is able to prevent the reaction. Salt was directly on the surface and was saturated with mixture of ammonia and vinegar, with a cotton ball soaked in ammonia placed next to the copper ring. Everything was placed in an airtight container.
Below is the result after 24 hours. It is a very strange reaction resulting in a colorful pattern but was not what I was aiming for.
I sanded the ring and had another go, this time I used a different method. I didn't use any Vaseline, the copper was cleaned up completely and Instead of saturating the salt with vinegar and ammonia mixture, I only wet the surface of the metal with vinegar, sprinkled some salt on top and place another container with ammonia next to it, ammonia fumes are absorbed by the salt and react with the metal in this reaction.
The result was very beautiful but unfortunately the ring was slightly smaller than the original cut size because it was eaten up by the reaction twice and was not a perfect fit for the case anymore, also some of the edges were not uniform. I realized that any duration of reaction more than 24 hours would damage the copper ring (thickness is 0.5mm)
So I made a third attempt with a new ring, using the same ingredients and method. It also came out pretty nice, but before proceeding any further, I wanted to experiment with fixation of the patina. I knew that some jewelry makers lightly dust these sorts of patinas with clear coat or wax them for preservation, but for me that wouldn't work, I needed to have a thick layer of clear coat so I had a test run on the ring from the second attempt, and it wasn't promising. The patina immediately lost its beautiful blue color and soaked up all the clear coat, and darkened in a lot of areas. This wasn't going to work because I needed the ring to have a lighter color because I was going to use decals to add the text to it and it wouldn't be legible.
To sum up, here are the problems with working with copper patina:
1) results and the colors are almost always random and uncontrollable, so if you need any specific shade or pattern, you most likely won't get it
2) the patina is very fragile so by the time you clean up the piece to remove the excess salt, you will lose some of the color and texture.
3) the fixation is a real problem if you need anything more than light dusting of clear coat on top of the patina, it will readily soak up the paint and get ruined if it's a heavy coat of paint.
So I had to change my approach. after some thought I realized that I was going to get the best results if I use the salt, vinegar and ammonia fuming method to get a patina texture and then use paint on top of the patina layer to get the colors I wanted. The patina layer would give a realistic texture underneath, and then I wouldn't have to worry about the colors changing or darkening after applying the clear coats, and I could completely control how it would look in the end.
Below you can compare the one I painted to the one where clear coat completely darkened the patina and the applied text is almost indistinguishable (on the top right)
I'm done with the long explanation, here is the rest of the build for your enjoyment.
And here is the final result, (I'm still looking around for a better strap
) if you want to know more about patination check this book out, for me I think it was a good reference: Matthew Runfola - Patina - 2014
Please let me know what you think about the watch and this process in general!
Cheers