Richard Huges and Michael Rowe
27 January 2020
The book contextualizes patination in art and craft through historical times, and mentions some achievements in patination techniques in French, Japanese and Chinese crafts movements. Beyond this, it is a kind of recipe book, showing images of patinated plates and directing the user to the ‘recipe’ to achieve the desired effect. I like the format of this documentation of practical research, and would like to document my experiments in the same way.
- Cast brass and bronze, Copper and copper plate, gilding metal, sheet brass and silver (electroplated copper not tested)
- Surface and grain enhancement from patination
I realized that I had already been using some methods of immersion and coating mentioned in the book, such as sawdust technique, fuming (called vapour method), Wadding (called cotton wool method) and masking (called partial plate colouring). However, there are some other techniques that I would really like to try, depending on access to equipment, such as the torch technique and heat colouring, that were also mentioned in my Realize crit. Another creative application of patination that I would like to try is the combination of metals and the processes of patination and lacquering on a single artefact, as displayed in the vase by Jean Dunand.
The copper recipes employed some chemicals that might potentially be hazardous, especially undertaken without proper ventilation and safety equipment..
The book mentions safety procedures and potential hazards of all chemicals mentioned. Copper sulphate and white vinegar (diluted 4-7% ascetic acid) used for most of my processes, are deemed safe during experimentation, but copper sulphate is toxic if ingested.
The book also mentions unsuccessful recipes in patination experiments, which reveals the ardous task of execution and compilation of practical research done for the book..
design factory 