Blue, bluer, bluest

As promised, here are some pics of my first baker's ammonia buried patinas. The top row is vinegar/ättika patina as a comparions while all the bronze tags in the bottom row are coloured using a mixture of baker's ammonia (half a sachet), sawdust and spirit vinegar (ättika 24 %) to moisten it.

The two first tags were rinsed in water almost immediately after being "excavated", which pretty much washed out all the cobalt blue, leaving a turquoise blue, crusty patina. The last tag has had another day in the sawdust and then been allowed to dry before being carefully brushed and rinsed.

Blue isn't normally my favourite colour, but I must say it was cool to open the jar and find an intense cobalt blue patina -- created from nothing more than two common household products. (Well, at least baker's ammonia is sort of common in Scandinavia: don't know if it's often used in baking in other countries.)

This patina became awfully "crusty" compared to just vinegar or vinegar and salt. Now that I know baker's ammonia works so well, I'm also going to try a fumed patina. That is, after I get some more of it -- and some more metal blanks...

And just to round it off: one more vinegar patina tag. Before burying it, I hammered it a bit, causing it to dome slightly, the idea being that the patina would be more protected inside the cupped tag. (Colours are a bit off in these pics, I'm afraid...)