Liver of Sulphur Patina - first attempts

Discussion in 'Castings, finishing/ repair/ and patina's' started by Tobho Mott, Sep 4, 2018.

  1. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Vaguely following Jason's instructions, I managed to put a nice dark brown liver of sulphur patina on a couple of silicon bronze castings. I'm quite happy with how they turned out!

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    This was done by dissolving a pea sized lump of liver of sulphur (thanks ebay) into very hot tap water, heating up the bronze with a weed burner torch, and applying the solution with a cheapo brush.

    Still getting a feel for it, but slow brushstrokes seemed to work best. I used a green scrubby pad to buff the patina off the highlights and bring back some of the metallic shine.

    I was surprised how different in colour the two castings came out in the end. It's the same bronze and the same liver of sulphur after all... The buckle was a lost foam casting and the ashtray was poured in my homemade greensand, but the only other difference was that the buckle was sealed with spray on polyurethane and the ashtray got coated with wax.

    I much prefer how the wax finish looks, it was just one of those tea-light candles; it was a holiday here yesterday so it was either try something I had lying around, or wait for another day... I've never been good at waiting on anything once I get a bug up my nose about trying something new. Turned out really nice in the end, I think.



    Jeff
     
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  2. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    That method produces a good looking finish.
    Gives the piece a nice patina and brings out a 3D look too.
     
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  3. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    I came for the playing around with fire and smelly chemicals, but I STAYED for all that stuff you just said. :D

    Jeff
     
  4. Rtsquirrel

    Rtsquirrel Silver

    Looking good. Impressed by the bead blast, slow, but cost effective: Horror Faught's works out okay sometimes.
    I found a patina thread on the AA forum, need toprint it out. Going for multiple colors on my reishii project.
    .
     
  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Well done man... Thanks for showing the world our secrets. You are now a marked man!:p

    Finding videos of patination work is pretty hard. Most these guys don't want you exposing their methods, UNLESS you pay them. There was a patination class earlier this year by a famous artist in colorado. It was his last class EVER and I think it cost like 700bucks for 2 half days of class. Fritz said the class is awesome, but the guys blasts through stuff so fast, your head is spinning like a top and you leave more lost than when you started. :rolleyes:

    Rtsquirrel, you pour your shrooms yet?
     
  6. Rtsquirrel

    Rtsquirrel Silver

    Haven't poured them yet. Made 4 wax models & realized I was short on investment. Uptick @ work delayed even further. Got a 50# bag of investment last week, considering shell for the future.
    Toboho's skull belt buckle projects got me headed down another rabbit hole. Made a couple trees worth of skulls. More ideas, more projects demanding more investment.
    Shell method keeps looking better & better.
    If it would stop raining on the weekends, I might actually get to fire up the beast & move forward on some pours.
     
  7. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Uh-oh... Thanks for the warning, now if/when I see an angry dude with a weed burner and a spray bottle heading my way, I'll know to run in the other direction.

    Rtsquirrel, looking forward to pix of the skull stuff and definitely to seeing progress on the shrooms, the AA patina thread needs more example pictures of the different colours the various recipes can produce...

    Jeff
     
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