Playing with Patinas

I have had color on the brain lately. Must be the spring (!) flowers that are popping up in California already.

I found a remedy for my colorlust. Yesterday I was dropping off some class samples at Bead Inspirations in Alameda, CA and saw these on the shelf. So I bought a bunch.

I am hooked. Now I want to patina every piece of metal that I have with alcohol inks. I experimented with the metallic and colored inks on copper sheet and got great results.

Before applying the inks, I textured the metal sheets and then annealed them. I did not remove the firescale after heating as it added to the depth of the patina. I sprayed them after they were dry with some acrylic fixative.

I made earrings out of the two smaller pieces.

The earrings feature Peridot and Freshwater Pearls. I am incorporating the larger piece of metal into a necklace design that I'll share with you next week. It has a Valentines theme and I think it's coming out pretty nicely.

Have a great weekend, everybody!