Inquiry
First, let me take this opportunity to thank all of you that read this blog and find interest in what we are doing and creating @ Ansley Parker. We read every comment and are always happy to address inquiries. A recent poster, “Manny”, inquired about our use of patinas in the Spring ‘08 line and since the answer isn’t a simple one we hope you enjoy our response.
As indicated by the poster, patinas can be tough to deal with because it is a chemical reaction which obviously isn’t easy to control. Because we are environmentally conscious, the patinas I’m working with currently have low environmental impact. The patinas you’ve seen were all done using a torch exclusively. Liver of Sulfur is really as far reaching as I plan to go. Sulfur is a naturally occurring compound, but the formulation isn’t free of other synthetic chemicals, so it’s limited use I can accept. Personally, I prefer the patinas that are created with the use of a torch alone. I’m wearing some pieces with regularity to see how they perform because heat patinas are the weakest. The metal itself has been known to interact with the personal chemistry of the wearer, so that’s an interesting wrinkle as well.
The copper work serves more as a testing ground for working in silver. However, you can’t patina silver with heat. The textures & methods you see on the metal itself will translate to the silver & maybe some limited use of liver of sulfur. This weekend I’ll post a recent cuff that displays several textures and various methods. Since I make the copper ‘test pieces’ I didn’t want to invest time and not make them functional, then of course I received great response. Buyers are waiting, etc. and yesterday I was in a total panic because I can’t find my new favorite pair of oversized copper hoops. :p So maybe they will become a separate line of work. There’s a balance that’s hard to strike when you use copper or brass but invest time in construction.
Again Manny, thanks for your inquiry!
May 17, 2008 at 3:40 am
Interesting. I seem to learn something new every time I read this blog. Last night I attended the student show at the College for Creative Studies. There was a really beautiful pendant in the jewelry section that contained what appeared to be a controlled patina effect (I think that’s what I was looking at). By controlled I mean that the artist was able to create shapes on the metal that were defined by a clean, crisp edge. Is there a way that you can mask out negative space in an effort to create clearly defined positive shapes and forms on metal using a patina technique?
May 18, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hmm, great question. I guess it’s possible to create a clean(er) edge w/masking, but if heat is the patina method chosen the object used to mask would have to be heated as well. There’s no ‘painters tape’ effect that readily comes to mind, though the possibility may exist. Using some sort of higher melting point metal as a mask? However, the entire piece of metal would still become warm enough for a patina effect to begin even on the masked metal (though not directly exposed to heat). So there’s still some play in your final result. Obviously, if you use a patina that can be painted on to the surface you have additional control.
I suspect a piece w/a crisp, clean edge on a complimentary metal probably wasn’t solely the effect of a patina. It’s amazing the number of steps & techniques that have to be employed to create a single piece of jewelry. It’s possible that different metals may have been joined via a method called marriage of metals and the patina applied as a finishing technique. Marriage of metals requires a bit of solder and a press. The materials literally marry and become one. Cool stuff. I’ll post a small bit of mokame gane I recently made, it’s a marriage of metals technique.
The CCS student show was wonderful! Unfortunately, I noticed that the metals department was rather low on visibility. :-/ It was a great time all the same!
June 24, 2008 at 6:05 am
Where are you, Ansley? I hear you’ve been doing some design work. Are the rumors true? We miss you!