Antiqued Copper

My whole weekend has been consumed by bare copper (weird for me not to use non-tarnish wire!), chasing hammers, sea sediment jasper, liver of sulfur, dremel collets, and the new ceramic tile which I’m really enjoying as a photo background.

I’ve never done this before but I LOVE it.

Liver of Sulfur is this goop you dump your metals into in order to make them oxidize – that is to say, turn it black.

Then, you buff it back off the raised areas to get this lovely soft contrast between the dark crevices and the shiny copper.

I didn’t actually know how to buff it, or what to buff it with! I have a dremel rotary tool and a kit full of random bit-type-attachments, so I tried a few and found one.

I wore that one to a nub on the first half-dozen pieces, and then had to wait until today to hit the hardware store to find a replacement.

As it turned out I found a BETTER buffer/polisher-thing and it did another dozen buffs without being worn down at all!

I ran the liver of sulfur three times, which is a waste, but the first time was a test, the second time was being over-eager once I knew that it worked, and the third time was because I was done wrapping for the weekend and wanted to have the rest of the pieces finished before I quit for the day.

The small wire here is my regular 22ga wire, made to look miniscule by the very heavy 16ga wire I’m using for the main wrap.

The 16ga is very heavy but surprisingly easy to wrap with; I make a curl and then hammer it, and then it’s essentially immovable after that, which is great for trapping a stone.

I kind of like how the bails at the top mostly look like hearts! Trying to come up with a name for these that isn’t as corny as “for love of the ocean” but that does mean kind of the same thing (since these are sea sediment jasper).

This is the newest direction for Gayle Bird Designs; expect to see more of this style, probably mostly at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design high-end gallery in Sydney.