Staining The Metal

Using a paintbrush, Platinol oxidising solution was applied over the surface of the copper which turned it a very deep brown- almost black- colour. According to the tutor, if touched, this solution weakened your nails, so I was very careful to use tweezers rather than my fingers to move this sheet of copper around. Once painted on, I took it over to the sink and washed it off. It had an incredibly strong ammonia smell to it which presented a hazardous environment so we was sure to leave the windows and doors wide open to ventilate the room. Once washed off, the copper had been very obviously stained so I then used wet and dry sanding paper to sand off the stain from any protruding parts of the metal. This left it only on the sunk in parts which really brought out the pattern imprinted into the copper. This stain would eventually rub off due to regular wear and tear so a layer of clear nail polish was added over the top to seal it in.