One more patina'd bronze tag

Lots of patina posts lately. The reason this sample wasn't in the previous post published a few hours ago is that I wrote that post yesterday (right now there's so much I want to post about that I could write three or four posts aday, but I'm trying to pace myself). This post is just being written as I fished this particular tag from the tea leaves around the same time that previous post was being published.

I'm not going to call this one a patina mishap because eventhough it didn't end up looking like I wanted, it wasn't a mishap. It was part of the experimentation, of the learning process. This was my first try at using stickers with a buried patina and of cause it doesn't always go as planned the first time.

Part of the learning process was also the realisation that adding another patina on the first one works wonders sometimes (see this post), but it doesn't really work that well all the time. Sometimes it can make things worse -- if you're unlucky -- or just turn it into another kind of meh.

It's not the first time I use stickers for something like this, though. I've used it before for a "reversed resist patina" when I stuck a few peel-off stickers (all stickers peel off, I have no idea why these silhouette stickers are called that) on a couple of Vintaj brass tags. Those tags come with a nice antiqued patina, which I removed using a commercial copper cleaning product. When removing the stickers, I got a simple "patina pattern" as you can see below.



(You can read more about the inspiration behind these tags and what I did to the right one here.)


The main issue here was probably that stickers work better with quick patinas like a dip in LOS or when stripping a patina like above. Spending a couple of days in vinegar-soaked tea leaves the sticker glue really stuck -- the same reason why you should never leave masking tape on a wall or object while the paint dries unless you use masking tape specially made for that sort of use. And trying to remove the residue (which you can see in the first pic), I removed part of the patina. (And to tell the whole truth, I never cleaned this tag before patinating it. It was probably both greasy and had lots of lacquer residue, which might have affected the outcome...)

So my conclusion is: either I need to use this method for another patina (on that either is fast enough for the sticker glue not to begin to harden or tough enough to withstand the removal of said glue) or I need a less rough glue-removal method. I know oil dissolves glues -- an oil mishap in one of my boxes of this and than made that all to clear, lots of detached labels -- and maybe that would be a better solution, one that doesn't harm the patina. The only question then is whether it'll be a problem when sealing the metal...

So what now? 

-I'm going to try the stickers method again, using both using a fumed or buried patina and using LOS. I'm also intent on trying what Charles Lewton-Brain in this article calls "bound materials", which is similar to the sticker method.

-I've just prepared a different buried patina with some ammonia, which is called for in many patina "recipes", but using the only ammonia I have: baker's ammonia, hjorthornssalt. (It does mean I can't bake any drömmar right now, though, as that kind of cookie/biscuit can't be done with more modern leavening agents such as baking soda or baking powder. Sacrificing everything for my patinas here.) Really fun thing is that upon writing this I googled baker's ammonia and patina and got this hit. Which also taught me a new word: metallokromi (= metal colouring).

-Another thing I want to try is recipes no. 12 and 18 at the Science Company. Because I love purple

-This post on Jenni's Beads also made me want some Swellegant Tiffany Green/Rust patina to create a different kind of patterns using iron paint on copper or copper alloys like bronze and brass. But buying Swellegant doesn't fit my budget and I'm running out of metal so sadly it'll have to wait.

-But the main thing is my shortage of metal. I've got a few bronze tags left, but no stampings I want to sacrifice, nor any other metal blanks. I need to buy more... But I also want to buy beads so there's a conflict as I'm not sure I can afford buying both... And I want some different things: brass, copper, stainless steel, pewter, single clad silver-filled/copper blanks (they've got those at Beaducation).

Well, well. It's fun to play with patina so I'm sure I'll come up with a solution.

And to round it off, here's a pic of some of the bronze tags in the patina collection so far: