Warming Up for a Show

I've been accepted into a gallery show at the Smithers Art Gallery next fall with my encaustic paintings so I'm going to have to be more efficient with my time to be ready for the show and still have time to work on other things, like jewelry.  Deadlines can be a good thing.

Yellow Pear - encaustic on cradled board - 6x6"

Here's a small warm-up piece I completed in my studio today.  I love the colours.  Not a combination that I would normally use but that's why I decided to use them together.  One of the best things about an obligation that requires me to produce a lot of work over a relatively short period of time, is that I find myself reaching in different directions, sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally.  Encaustic in particular has a way of taking you off course just because of how the medium moves.  Sometimes the final result doesn't have even a germ of the idea I started with.  Sometimes it makes me laugh, and sometimes I cry.  I like laughing more.

More Patina Play on Copper

I'm trying to get into the habit of posting on my blog more regularly but life has a way of getting in the way and that's okay cause it's all good.  All I have to do is schedule myself a bit better.  Ha!!

I had a bit of time to play in my studio this weekend so I spent some of it playing with some more patina on copper penny earrings.  The first one, Liver of Sulphur, is pretty common.  I used the gel so all I had to do was stir it into some hot water (1 tsp of the Liver of Sulphur to 12 ounces of water).  I heated the copper a bit with the torch first so when I immersed the earrings in the solution, the colour developed very quickly and got quite black.  After rinsing and drying, I sanded the high points lightly for some contrast.

Copper earrings with Liver of Sulphur patina

On this next pair I decided to try layering a  couple of different techniques.  First I did a heat patina using peanut oil and the MAPP gas torch.  I lightly oiled the copper with peanut oil on a paper towel and then heated the earrings just until I got some colour variation - shades of brown and orange mostly.  Then I cleaned off the oil partially and spritzed the earrings with water, sprinkled with some salt, and left under a glass cake topper overnight with a small dish of ammonia.  This added some lovely turquoise blue colour to the mix.  Perfect compliment to the turquoise nuggets I added to these earrings.  If I had scrubbed more of the peanut oil off, I would have had more blue.  Maybe next time.  I love how they turned out anyway.

Copper earrings with peanut oil and MAPP gas patina topped with patina made with ammonia and salt

Jewelry making is so much fun!