Patinas

Lesson: Patinas

Depletion Gilding:

The annealing and pickling routine above is also known as depletion gilding or raising the fine silver. It is a process of raising the pure silver in the alloy to the surface of the silver. The more times you do it, the thicker the fine silver layer becomes. This is a great trick for covering up firescale (that nasty purple stain you see on your silver pieces). Depletion gilding leaves a lovely soft white matte color to the silver, which is a nice patina as well. If brass brushed, the surface gets very shiny and that bright silver color. It also works on gold, bringing a layer of fine gold to the surface, giving a deep yellow appearance.

Pre-mixed chemical patinas:

We have several premixed patinas in the studio, the directions for each are listed on the bottles. Also listed are the metal that the patinas work with. Try out the patinas on the various metals. The results will be different. Copper is the most reactive.

Sawdust patinas:

• We have 3 sawdust patinas mixed up. Using gloves, feel the sawdust. If it is dry and not holding together when you press some on your palm add a bit of water and stir. The sawdust should be damp not wet.
• These patinas work best over a 2-7 day period and must be sealed.
• After retrieving your piece from the sawdust, rinse off and if needed scrub gently with a toothbrush to remove any sawdust that is stuck on.

Copper “Plating”:

• Useable on silver, brass, bronze, nickel.
• Time: 5-10 minutes
• Take some pickle and place it into a container.
• Coil some binding wire or other steel or iron wire and place into the pickle along with your piece.
• You can also use sheet iron or steel.
• The steel should be touching your piece.
• Leave for 5-10 minutes.
• Copper will form on the surface of the metal.
• You can brass brush the copper surface, but no sanding!
• This is a very thin layer of copper so textures will show.

Liver of Sulfer Iridescent Variation:

• Useable on silver, copper.
• Intensifies the colors liver of sulfer can achieve and gives an iridescent sheen.
• Time: 3-10 minutes
• Take a small piece of liver of sulfer and dissolve in hot water.
• Add in 1 tsp. of salt and 1 Tbsp. of ammonia.
• Mix thoroughly. The solution should be a very pale yellow in color. Add more water if necessary to achieve this.
• Get a cup full of hot water, and a cup of cold water.
• The cold water is to stop the reaction and let the color develop. The colder the water, the better the colorations.
• Dip your piece in the hot water, then the liver of sulfer, and then let it sit in the cold water.
• Repeat until you have the desired color.
• You can dip different areas to get a mottled effect.

• After desired color is achieved, rinse off piece with water and pat dry.
• Rubber cement can be used as a resist for this patina.
• Liver of sulfer is a thinner patina and textures will show.
• Liver of sulfer needs to be sealed if it will be coming into contact with surfaces or skin, if it is on the interior of a piece it does not need to be sealed.

Lesson: Reticulation

• Reticulation can be done with sterling silver, reticulation silver, or any silver alloys that are 80-92.5% fine silver..
• Clean your metal to remove dirt and oils.
• Anneal, pickle, brass brush (depletion gild) your piece.
• Using your scribe scratch a small patch in the corner of your piece.
• Anneal (the patch will turn dark a bit quicker than the rest of the piece), pickle, brass brush, scratch the same patch.
• Repeat this process until the patch doesn’t turn dark upon annealing- about 10 times. This means that there is a thick enough layer of fine silver on the surface to give you the reticulation.
• Pickle, brass brush.
• Place sheet on annealing pebbles or trivet.
• Using a small sharp (hissy) flame, heat patches of the sheet until the surface turns shiny (liquid) and begins to buckle.
• Move in segments over the whole sheet.
• Reticulate a larger sheet than you need. This way you can pick the best areas.

Tips:

• The more times you anneal and pickle, the thicker the layer of fine silver on the top will be. The thicker the layer of fine silver, the better your reticulation.
• Reticulation is unpredictable. Don’t expect to get the same result twice, or an even result across a sheet.
• When soldering with reticulated silver, burnish the areas to be soldered. Reticulation makes the surface more porous which will cause it to soak up solder. Burnishing forces the surface down, sealing that porosity.
• Hoover & Strong (and other vendors) sell a 80/20 silver (as opposed to .925 which is sterling) that is especially formulated for reticulation. The higher copper content will allow it to get more ridges and valleys.