JC week 7 how to : DIY antique brass patinas, ammonia, sulphur and vinegar.

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

How to patina brass using Hot and Cold techniques

ABOVE LEFT: cold patina created with sulphur (eggs)
ABOVE CENTER: hot patina created with brown vinegar
ABOVE RIGHT: cold patina created with ammonia
ABOVE BOTTOM: non-patina brass

This post contains directions on how to patina brass using eggs or ammonia or brown vinegar and a heat gun to create the results as pictured above. For my project I am needed to age the brass for conceptual relevance and am choosing to use the egg patina ( its not as pretty but looks more aged).


A few quick notes about the petinas:
The hot method is faster, Most hot patinas are transparent. The benefits to using heat,   is that the patina chemicals get sucked up by the metal – it’s more than a surface-only treatment. 
Cold Patinas are, as a general rule, opaque.  The application of these patinas involves applying the agent  onto room temperature (cold). The drawback to cold patinas is that they are relatively fragile and need to be protected – either structurally or with lacquers, varnishes or waxes. 

WARNING

Before begining to patina your metal, make sure that it is clean and free of finger prints as these marks will effect the finish.

PATINA  type one cold patina: BOILED EGGS ( When Liver of sulphur isnt available) 
the idea here is that the eggs give off sulfuric gas, which is responsible for giving the brass a patina finish.

Place an egg into a saucepan and boil on high for 5 minutes 

Remove the egg from the hot water using a slotted spoon and rinse it thoroughly under cold running water. Keep it there until it feels cool enough to handle, but not yet ice cold. Chilling the egg makes it easier to handle, and chilling the egg quickly helps separate the shell from the cooked egg white.

 Roll the egg gently on a flat surface to crack the shell. Then, use your fingers to peel away the rest of the shell.

Use a kitchen knife to cut the egg in half lengthwise. Note that both the egg white and egg yolk should be cut in two

Place both halves of your boiled egg into a resealable plastic bag, along with your brass piece. Seal the bag well

Sit the bag in sunlight for several hours. After several hours pass you should notice a subtle patina forming on the brass

The results of the egg patina

PATINA type two cold patina : ammonia
The ammonia will produce a very dark green and blue patina on brass metals

You will need an air tight jar, ammonia, table salt, paper towel and protective glasses and gloves for this project

Line a deep container with paper towels. Crumple up a few clean paper towels and place them inside a container with a lid.

 Pour ammonia over the paper towels in your container, adding enough to saturate the paper towels.Ammonia is a hazardous chemical, so you should only do this in an area that is well-ventilated.

Sprinkle salt on top. Pour a generous amount of table salt over the paper towels in your container, distributing it evenly over the surface.

Place the brass inside. Rest your brass piece directly on top of the coated and soaked paper towels. Press gently so that the bottom and sides of the brass come into direct contact with the ammonia and salt.

Cover the brass with additional ammonia-soaked paper towels. Crumple another clean paper towel and place it directly on top of your brass piece. Pour more ammonia onto the paper towel, soaking it thoroughly.

Place the lid on the container. Secure the lid in place and set the container aside for a few hours. For this experiment it was left overnight ( starting at 1pm to 6am )

Once you notice blue forming on the paper towel, that is the indicator that the patina is working.

This is the results of the brass and ammonia patina overnight test

PATINA TYPE three HOT patina: brown vinegar
This method of patina produces a rainbow/brown patina finish. This patina is the fastest of the three to complete but requires the metal to be heater to approx 200'c or higher

WHAT YOU NEED : Heat gun, a surface to heat the metal on ( ceramic tile, frying pan and steel container ), brown vinegar

 Step 1: Heat the brass plate , I heated the plate for 5 minutes with the heatgun set to 650'c.
Step 2: pour a small amount of brown vinegar directly onto the hot brass plate
Step 3: reheat the brass plate till all of the vinegar has evaporated. again this was for 5 minutes with the heatgun set to 650'c

Result of the brown vinegar HOT patina test
The effect is similar to oil or holographic paper, the coloration changes depending on how the light hits the surface.

Research
http://www.beadinggem.com/2014/01/gun-blue-vs-liver-of-sulfur-patination.html
http://www.nancylthamilton.com/techniques/patinas/
http://www.wikihow.com/Patina-Brass
http://www.howtoantiquebrass.com/how-to-antique-brass-with-vinegar/

JC week 8: cutting cross guard brass

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here


The following is a record of the cutting of the panels are for the cross guard (final project)

Brass is a harder metal, previously ive cut aluminium at home but my saw does not take the JC blades, so this had to be done in studio time

The curved sections had to be cut first, and due to depth the cuts had to be made from two directions as the saw's depth was too shallow.

all curves have been cut

the seperation of the two halves was made using the cutting maching

ABOVE: Cutting machine

The center curves were then cut out

JC week 8 : pressing images into brass

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA)

The following is the process for pressing paper images into sheets of brass

The results of Pressing brass sheet metal using paper.

The intended paper to use is snowden 300g paper. This paper is being used for its texture, thickness and density. This effect is achieved using a roller press ( discussed in previous posts )

roller press

Step 1: 

cut out paper panels that match the size of the brass panels. For this project I intend to register the paper with the brass panels and attach them with masking tape ( making sure that none of the sticky surface of the tape touches the rollers as it may damage the rollers )

NOTE: tape cannot normally be used as it leaves a mark on the metal surface

Transfering the images onto the snowden paper, sunlight and a window can be a great light box.

Once transfered the images were then carefully cutout, any errors will appear on the pressed metal

To transport the paper cutouts (which are very delicate) I had to tape them down in the box.

 Step 2:Pressing the paper into the metal sheets.

The image are attached to the brass sheet to be pressed with masking tape on the bottom edge. This method is not normally recommended as it leaves a mark BUT it is suitable here as the bottom edge will be concealed. Note also to make sure that none of the sticky suface touches the rollers as it may damage them

The sheets of brass are distorted after being run through the press as seen in the right hand side brass sheet.

This distortion means that the panels need to be annealed then pressed flat before cutting to the correct size.

 Step 3:Pressing the sheets of brass flat.

The sheets of brass then needed to be flatted so that they could be recut into the correct size.
Its important that every step of the metal manipulation that it is annealed.

Using the Hydrolic press the metal is then reflattened using 2000psi of pressure. Note that the thin green sheet facing the pressed images has been used in this process, this is to preserve the images pressed into the metal surface.

First test was at 1000psi , the recommended/used was 2000psi which was sufficient to flatten the sheets

Step 4: Cutting the sheets to size

Once annealed and pressed flat a template was made for the panels so that they could be cut to size
The cutting machine was then used

Above: These are the final panels to be used in the final project. They have also been cleaned using the citric acid bath.

 Additional notes:
The first panels ie the "marriage and fatherhood" ended up with some shadowing from the pressed sheets. BE CAREFUL WITH THE PLATE YOU USE FOR PRESSING METAL. any marking on them will come onto the surface you are embossing. Both panels are damaged in some way due to this "ghosting".

JC week 6 Artist research continued

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

The following post is looking at artists that explore transendentalism, such as Bill Viola, Alex Grey and Mark Rothko.

The reason for researching artists such as these is that my interests in creating works of art is in the spiritual "otherness". The spiritual aura and meaning that art can convey. Appon recommendation by the lecturer I have also researched the brisbane artist Dough Kwok

"Alex Grey (born November 29, 1953) is an American visionary artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. Grey is a member of the Integral Institute. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit church supporting Visionary Culture in Wappingers Falls, New York." wikipedia SOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Grey

Alex Grey   SOURCE:http://artboom.info/painting/alex-grey-the-art-of-a-visionary.html

 "Mark Rothko (/ˈrɒθkoʊ/), born Markus Yakovlevich Rotkovich (Russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич) (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent. Although Rothko himself refused to adhere to any art movement, he is generally identified as an Abstract Expressionist. With Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, he is one of the most famous postwar American artists.... In November 1958, Rothko gave an address to the Pratt Institute. In a tenor unusual for him, he discussed art as a trade and offered "[the] recipe of a work of art—its ingredients—how to make it—the formula.

1. There must be a clear preoccupation with death—intimations of mortality... Tragic art, romantic art, etc., deals with the knowledge of death.
2. Sensuality. Our basis of being concrete about the world. It is a lustful relationship to things that exist.
3. Tension. Either conflict or curbed desire.
4. Irony, This is a modern ingredient—the self-effacement and examination by which a man for an instant can go on to something else.
5. Wit and play... for the human element.
6. The ephemeral and chance... for the human element.
7. Hope. 10% to make the tragic concept more endurable.

I measure these ingredients very carefully when I paint a picture. It is always the form that follows these elements and the picture results from the proportions of these elements."^[" WIKIPEDIA SOURCE:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko

Mark Rothko's chapel   SOURCE:http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2014/08/04/rothko-chapel/

 "Bill Viola (born 1951) is a contemporary video artist. He is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media.^[1] His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects of consciousness..... Viola's art deals largely with the central themes of human consciousness and experience - birth, death, love, emotion and a kind of humanist spirituality. Throughout his career he has drawn meaning and inspiration from his deep interest in mystical traditions, especially Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism and Islamic Sufism, often evident in the transcendental quality of some of his works.^{[citation needed]} Equally, the subject matter and manner of western medieval and renaissance devotional art have informed his aesthetic." WIKIPEDIA SOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Viola

Bill Violas Tristan's Assention video still SOURCE: http://hyperallergic.com/114411/bill-violas-moving-void/

 "Doug Kwok, born in Brisbane 1966. Resides in Brisbane. A self taught artist creates hand fabricated metal sculptures and also incorporates found objects to form intricate sculptural artworks of his own unique style ingenuity and technique. He primarily uses precious and semi-precious metals but also uses other non-metallic mediums"
SOURCE http://www.dougkwokart.com/contact.php

Dough Kwok 4 card players  SOURCE:http://www.dougkwokart.com/portfolio.php

JC week 6: continued construction of final project

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university (QCA) to view the full journal click here

NB: journal entry for the Jewellery and Small object module at South bank Griffith university ( QCA ). 

The following image (figure 1, figure 2) are relating to the cutting out of the cross guard. The metal is aluminium so is easily cut with a fret saw. To assist in the cutting I cut the metal of the "feathered" side first as it had the most detail. To hold the sheet in place I clamped the metal down, note in the images I have used a piece of timber, this is to protect the metal from clamp marks and to provide an even application of presure across the sheet.

figure 1

figure 2

The following images are experiments and current production of the blade(which is still under construction). I have purchased a 120cm length of 3/8 inch zinc plated threaded rod to use as an armature of the sword blade.

The intended process of the sword blade construction is.

• Make a mold of a sword blade --> plaster and sand to create mold
• Place sword blade in sand leaving half of the blade raised
• Spray the sword blade with cooking oil ( to prevent sticking of the plaster
• apply a minimum of 4 layers of plaster to the exposed blade for strength
• wait for plaster to harden then turn over
• remove sword from plaster mold
• lay clingwrap on inside of mold surface
• apply three layers of paper mache to the mold
• once dry place steel rod and pack paper pulp around the blade
• again allow for drying then remove the blade from the mold
• repeat the last four steps for the reverse side of the blade
• once dry then apply the "scriptured" paper as a final layer

white paper pulp, intended for use in the core of the sword blade

the paper pulp has been removed from the mix using a net

Engraving tests onto aluminium, i had intended on engraving the feathers onto the crossguard

Initial design for mold of blade

mold construction 1

mold construction 2

mold construction 3