This question is from the Warner Crivelaro Glass Chat:
> What is up with liquid copper
> patina? Is it just me or is this stuff
> difficult to work with? For the first two
> seconds that it is applied it is bright
> and shiny. By the 3rd second, it starts
> to get gross and dirty-silver looking.
> How can I get that perfect shiny copper
> finish?
ANSWER:
As for your copper patina issue, do you have any trace of water on your
hands or the piece when you patina it? Copper patina is very fickle like that,
it doesn't like mineral content in water, or oil from your hands.
What you want to do is clean the item thoroughlly then let it dry completely, I
paper towell mine dry then put it in front of an electric heater so I know it's
completely 100% dry before I put a clean dry fresh pair of latex gloves on then
patina it. I use cotton balls or cotton squares to apply patina and my copper is
flawless everytime.
I learned this process the REALLY hard way when I copper patinad a wet project
and it turned BLACK! This, the day before I was giving it as a gift. I ended up
steel wooling the copper off as much as I could and patinaing it black.
Copper patina is a very beautiful effect if you do it right. Make sure you have
NO water or oils on your solder/glass to react with the patina...
If you ever mix your own copper patina, make sure you use purified distilled
water that has NO mineral content whatsoever.
When you're done patinaing the copper project, DON"T rinse it off, use KEM-O-PRO
finishing compund. Just towel off the excess patina, and polish vigourously
(according to manufacturer instruction) to a nice Shiny-new-penny finish.
I've found that my copper patina work does tend to fade/tarnish after a few months,
say about7, so you want to make sure you do at least 2 coats of finishing compound,
and hopefully the nice shiny finish will remain..
