Tuesday, January 28, 2014

More Results of Patina Color Experimentation


Filigree Leaf Earrings with orange "rust", yellow "topaz", and green "emerald" patina
I am hosting a patina blog hop that takes place on Feb. 29.  Ten jewelry designers are working with the same natural brass compass and coloring them.  They will then show the compass in a jewelry design.  To prepare for this I have been experimenting with my new patina sets and mixing colors from different sets of the Ranger patinas.  For the filigree leaves above I combined two colors from the Faded Pickup set with 1 from Rusted hardware.  I hung the patinaed leaves on gold colored ear wires with a gold bead to highlight the gold color of the metal that shows through the patina.
Natural Brass Pieces
You can see the natural brass leaf that I started with in the above photo.  Also, I put patina on natural brass rectangles with flowers cut out.  One of them is pictured above.  I  created another set of earrings with the floral rectangles.
3 inch long flower earrings available for purchase in my Etsy store
I hand patinaed these flowers in a lovely aged green, orange and yellow. I then hung them on gold colored ear wires with a gold bead to highlight the gold color of the metal that shows through the patina.

 I love the cutouts in the rectangle.  These earrings remind me of sunflowers.

I had another set of earrings that I was working on.  In my excitement to put patina on them, I forgot to wash them before beginning and the grease from my hands shows on them.  I intend to take some steel wool to them and start over. 

To prepare my piece for the patina blog hop, I also purchased some Vintaj Glaze. The Vintaj Glaze can be used as a sealer (to preserve the patina color), or as a patina extender to dilute your colors and create a washed look. To achieve this look, I often use the ratio of 1 part Patina to 3 parts color.  While the patinas are permanent on metal and don’t require sealing,  everything has a tendency to lighten with wear over time. To preserve the look of your patina, seal your piece with a glaze after it finishes drying and after using the metal reliefing block. I sealed both of my earrings.

I found a wonderful page on Pinterest that is a great resource for learning how to put color on metals.  It is located at http://www.pinterest.com/karlawebb/jewelry-making-color-patina-ink-transfers/

I am pleased with my earrings.  What are your thoughts on them?


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Purchase and Experimentation Is How I Prepare for the Patina Blog Hop



Ranger's Weathered Patina Can Give an Aged Copper Look

My experience with patinas has been limited to creating several pairs of earrings with a Ranger selection of patinas called "Weathered".  I used "Weathered" because it had the colors of jade, verdigris, and moss and it is designed to give the look of aged copper.    I liked the results of it on these earrings.   The colors remind me of the gorgeous water of the Florida Keys and I love copper so it was a win win for me.  If you aren't familiar with patinas they are opaque inks, specially formulated to adhere to metals.   The ink is fast drying and can be heat-set for added durability.  


Rusted Hardware
For this blog hop, I enlarged my patina collection to include Ranger's "rusted hardware"  which includes rust cinnabar and clay colors.   I also purchased "faded pickup" which has lapis, emerald and topaz colors.

Faded Pickup

I then gathered the following materials. 
Brass pieces to patina
Ranger 15-Inch-by-18-Inch non stick Craft Sheet
flat tipped paint brush
paper towel
water
reliefing block

I watched my favorite video tutorial to review the process-- Vintaj Patina and Glaze Video Tutorial.


Before beginning I  degreased all the items that I planned to patina.  If you leave any greasy fingerprints or machine oil it will leave a spot that stubbornly resists any patina.
I then got to work.
"Rusted Hardware" and "Faded Pickup" applied to this 
 I put all 6 of my new patinas on my craft sheet and began experimenting.  This tree pendant is one of my finished pieces that uses a combination of patinas from my new 6 paints.  I think it turned out pretty well.  What are your thoughts?

Friday, January 10, 2014

In the Forest Blog Hop Sponsored by Lisa Lodge



Lisa Lodge bead kit for In the Forest Blog
The kit for the "In the Forest Blog" arrived in early autumn so I had lots of time to use these beads.  The first thing I did was separate most of the aqua beads from the dark green just for the heck of it.  I then used most of the aqua beads in the first 3 pieces that I made.
Autumn leaves bracelet uses aqua crystal beads
I made this autumn leaves bracelet has a handmade polymer clay cuff by Humblebeads that sits on top of the wrist. This cuff style is all the rage. The handmade artisan cuff bracelet has brown and white button pearls and turquoise/aqua beads from Lisa are used. These are the colors that are found in the sketch of the leaves on the bracelet bar. I also used gold wire and gold beads to add sparkle. There is a brown jasper bead and a few crystals. I think that the aqua beads are perfect for this bracelet.


Dragonfly bracelet uses aqua beads


The rest of the aqua beads went into making this Dragonfly bracelet.  I liked the Autumn Leaves bracelet design so much that I used it again to make this cuff bracelet.  The handmade artisan cuff by Humblebeads is combined with brown and white button pearls and Lisa's aqua beads since these are the colors that are found in the sketch of the dragonfly on the bracelet bar. I also used gold wire and gold beads to add sparkle. There is an artisan smooth, round, ceramic purple bead as well as a jasper bead and a few crystals.


Aqua Heart Necklace features aqua czech leaves

For my 3rd piece I used all of the aqua Czech leaves.  The color matches this ceramic heart and I thought that the royal blue pearls would be a great color combination.

I still have lots of forest green beads and the 3 large oval beads to use!  Please visit the folks participating in this blog hop and leave some kind words.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist
Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes
Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design
Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life
Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation
Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware
Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog
Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti
Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings
Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz
Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams
Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera
Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends
Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry
Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me
Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion
Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee
Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes
Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs
Christina Miles, Wings n Scales
Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion
Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming
Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things
Kay Mallery,TBD
Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings
Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs
This blog hop came with great beads and lots of time.  Lisa is wonderful at putting kits together.  I look forward to her next blog hop in February 22 called Winter Sparkle.