Stephen Fitz-Gerald
This is a HUGE subject and many books have been written on the subject. Ron Young is generally considered the reigning master although he hasn't exactly been adventurous in innovating and posing new formulas,IMHO.
One who IS "adventurous"in this regard is Matt Hart at a foundry in Sebastopol,Ca.called Bronze Plus. I'll try to get him on this site some time soon. He does all my complicated patinas (allot of stainless stuff)...
http://ou8nrtist2.deviantart.com/art/Asian-Sink-and-Pedestal-47105126

Stephen Fitz-Gerald
Welcome Matt,
I was hoping you'd show up here.

Glad to have you here Matt!
I look forward to learning about some new patinas from you.
I am also a west county resident ;-)

Dino

Over the years, we've always had great success with Birchwood patinas. Unlike some other darkeners, they have been consistent from batch to batch and can be diluted up to 10:1.


For darkening iron or steel, use PC-9. M-24 is only for nonferrous metals.


The people at Sculpt Nouveau have helped us with many projects and are extremely knowledgeable about metal finishes. Give them a call, they'll point you in the right direction.


Good luck!

There are patination materials that will enable you to get most any "finish" you want. If you want some small amounts of patinas that will go black and brown I could send you a small bottle of each for postage plus a couple of bucks for bottles, time and product. Then if they do what you want, you can get the patinas in larger amounts and I can give you the company names. One problem is cartridge brass's can vary in alloy and thus be variable in patination take. But these solutions seem to work well on many copper alloys. Also for clear coating, you might do well getting Incralac, a lacquer made especially for copper alloys and for UV protection of the patinas. The lacquer is a bit pricey but works great. If interested in sources (both in spray cans or bulk) let me know.

John Dach
john@MLCE.net
web site: http://www.MLCE.net and ctmandalas.com

hi JOHNDACH -thankyou so much for your very kind offer -but i am in australia so the post etc will just be too much i think? i dont really know -i am quite confident in obtaining the patination materials and i am not too fussed on the colour of the results so long as its more towards black than a blue or green -my main concern is the pattern of the finish. in the picture i provided above the metal "seems" to have been high polished back to shiny bright brass then had some cloudy mottled patina applied over the top so that you can still see the high polished metal peeking through here and there-i suppose it is the method in application i need help with? I am particularly interested in the far right one -the patina seems to have a very graduated natural finish -yet the high shine of the brass peeking through suggests it is man made. I dont know is it just me!? perhaps im going a little batty trying to figure this thing out with no prior experience :) i will definitely try to get my hands on the Incralac too if it gives that nice high shine. thanx for your help! :)

Noukos,

It is not too difficult to get that effect. After you polish the casings (that's the proper term for them, by the way), you'll need to clean them to remove all traces of that Brasso. Then you want to very lightly, actually microscopically, etch the surface with dilute phosphoric acid. DuPont sells a product called "MetalPrep" at automotive paint supply places for that purpose, and it is not expensive. Other auto paint companies have similar products. Follow the directions on the container.

When the casings are prepped, apply your patinating agent using a perfume atomizer or something similar to deliver tiny little droplets of spray. Then suspend a large plastic bag over the whole operation to keep the humidity up while the patinating agent does its work.

I would use Birchwood Casey's Brass Black or their Super Blue gun bluing compound. These are available at gun shops here in the States, I've no idea where you would get them in NZ.

After the patina is finished, rinse it thoroughly with clean water and let it dry. Then set them aside for a week or so to "age", which makes the patina more permanent and durable. After that week's wait you can lightly buff them with a cloth and then coat them with Incralac or Permalac. Do not put the clear coat on too thick or it will eventually craze.

Hope this helps.

Rich

Rich's ideas are great. Gun "bluing" might be available at sporting goods stores or via mail near you and they do work on copper alloys. A little will go a long way. Also on application, spritz spray bottles are one way to go, another is to "pull back" wetter brush bristles and let a few hairs at a time fly. This will give a more varied sized drops than the perfume spritzer bottle will..

John Dach
john@MLCE.net
web site: http://www.MLCE.net and ctmandalas.com

When spattering I have found the old method of tapping a brush against a stick to be most versatile. For larger areas a toungue depressor can be held in front of an airbrush nozzle so that the spray is broken into droplets that the air blows off of the depressor. For really big jobs it is best to have a good spray gun with oversized needle/nozzle and lowered air pressure blowing pretty thin product. As you might guess I have done a fair amount of such decorating... it is fun! Done with care and well honed techniques it can create very powerful and yet subtle effects.

From the looks of this project I'd probably use the tapping brush system. Practice loading the brush in different ways, use various brushes(small artist flats are good candidates), vary your tapping strength, get your aim adjusted (it's still kinda messy), and go to it! Sometimes it is useful to follow spattering with a fine bristled brush in a stippling manner to get finer textured and more (or less) even patterns.