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[Heidi Maiers]

How fun. I finally did my first hot patina. My clever husband designed and built this knife stand last weekend and for the sides, we used steel bars. Of course I couldn’t resist putting a patina on them to apply some of what I had learned at the Ron Young workshop.

Interesting thing was, I have yet to go out and get a propane tank and a rosebud torch to do the heating and wanted to see if I could get the metal hot enough with a heat gun. It only had to heat to about 200 degrees and lo and behold – I was able to do it on these small (3” x 18” ) sheets. It did take a while to heat up enough, but was doable.
I was pretty limited with the chemicals I have that can be used on steel (most are for bronze, copper, brass, or metal coatings).

To do the patina I:

1. Sanded down the steel to remove the factory coating
2. Scrubbed with metal cleaner/degreaser with a scotch brite pad and then rinsed with water Stippled on a darkening agent (Ron’s “Darkening” patina), waited 5 minutes and rinsed. (At this point, you can use steel or bronze wool to remove some of the darkening and/or bring out highlights on a sculpture)
3. Heated the metal with a heat gun for about 5 minutes
4. Splattered and sprayed on alternate diluted (with water) layers of light and dark green dye oxides and potassium dichromate while keeping the metal very hot
5. Applied clear wax while still fairly hot, then buffed when cool

Anyway, not the best patina job, but not too bad for a first. Can’t wait to experiment with the ceramic slabs now and will use the same process (except for #1). For ceramic, I'll first spray the pieces with high heat engine block enamel (gold), do steps 3 and 4, spray with lacquer when cool, and then apply the wax.



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Heidi Maiers
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[Tamara]

oooh Heidi-

Like that! Can't wait to see you do it on the ceramic slabs!

-Tamara
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[Rob Hendriks]

I am interested Heidi,also because not all ceramics are even by surviving a heat shock.It depending on the form of the ceramic and the material.I think there is a big difference between a slab with a lot grog and a bust.

Rob

[Heidi Maiers]

We'll see how it goes. Rob, I'll be testing the same clay I am using for the bust and this type of clay does contain a lot of grog. I would think the surface can withstand a quick heat to 200 which is far less than the 2000 it has already sustained. I'd better try both thick and thin pieces to make sure there is no shock cracking. That would be a nightmare to have the bust break doing the finish!
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[Heidi Maiers]

Here is the first set of test pieces for hot patina on ceramic slabs. I made these for the "Courtney" bust in progress, so most are tight grained patterns.

I found that the darkening chemicals did not work on the metalic engine block paint, so I applied diluted layers of light and dark dye oxides to get the different color patterns. All applied with spray mister, natural sponge, and 1/2 inch throw away brush. Also, the clay did not heat as well, or retain heat as well as metal, so the hot patina worked better with small droplets rather than large. Using a torch would give you more versatility (i.e., making veining and turtle shells, etc.), but for small droplet patterns like these, the heat gun did the trick.
























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[Tamara]

Thanks Heidi for sharing the results of the first test. It's interesting to see the various patterns you were able to get. I like the first pic best for the colors and the pattern. It'll be nice to see the effects you can get with a torch. I love all the veining where it mimics that type of marble and granite.

How will the patina be effected because it doesn't have the darkening agent due to it not being compatible with the engine paint? Does it just mean that their won't be the antiquing effect?

What makes this process more desirable than the one you demonstrate in your book? I know you used a lot of different techniques to get the colors shown in your book. Do you like this better and why? Is it more permanent? More potential for interesting patterns?

Is a lot of the effect created from the sprays droplet size? It seems so. Then the heat moves it around a bit I suppose...

Thanks again for doing all these tests on ceramic. I've been thinking about this and waiting anxiously to see what happens. Thank goodness your girl is coming in for another sitting so that you can move along with your bust and get the patinas applied. Yeah!

-Tamara
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[Heidi Maiers]

With the darkening chemicals on metal, the advantage is that you can apply it cold, give the metal a uniform darkening, and rub it back a little or a lot with steel wool to expose the metal highlights if you want. I'm not too concerned about highlights because on a portrait, I sort of want it to have an even patina all over, without highlights. I can just use a dark color as my first patina coat if I want to start with a dark base. Might even be able to rub it back a little for highlights if I wanted, but haven't tried doing that.
I like this method better than cold application for several reasons:
- The initial spray paint goes on thinner than the cold metal coatings, making the surface look "less painted"
- The patterns look more like bronze and I just like the look better in general
- The application is much faster gives you much better control


With hot patina, the water evaporates as soon as it hits the surface, leaving instant spots of translucent color. If it's really hot, the liquid sizzles in a circular pattern, making small or large rings on the outer edges. You have a lot more control than with cold patinas. With cold patinas, the liquid just runs down the surface and makes a lot of streaking patterns, which is ok too for certain effects - especially if you are going for a weathered look. Also, cold patina is a guessing game of putting on a chemical and waiting to see what random colors and patterns appear. Sometimes the result is good, other times not. One plus about the the metal coatings is that they do react with the acid patinas, while the engine paint doesn't seem to - which is why I used only the dye oxides (which are non acidic) on these sample strips.

As far as permanency goes, hot patina on ceramic is not as permanent as on metal since the color actually permeates the metal but not the ceramic. Between hot and cold patina on ceramic though, I would say the hot makes a stronger bond and is less likely to come off over time. When finished with the patina, both hot and cold patina on ceramic should be sprayed with lacquer to set the color before waxing. Metal can be waxed directly while the piece is still warm. Both can have additional layers of colored wax applied if desired.

Anyway, this was fun and the possibilities are endless for pattern and color combination. It really is an art form all on its own.
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[Heidi Maiers]

[Heidi Maiers]

I added a few more close up patina photos to the gallery above. So far, the heat gun did the trick on ceramic, forton, and resin - and I suspect it would work on polymer as well. I would only attempt to go hotter, as in using a torch, on ceramic though.
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[Rob Hendriks]

Those new patina's are beautiful Heidi!I like them because they are a little more glossy.
The engine spray and the torch are a good alternative for glazing ceramics.

A glazing alternative I has use ,is seal the ceramic body with a melting engobe
so the ceramic body don't suck paint.Then paint with oilpaint or acrylic and finish with varnish.

Rob

[Linda Beasley]

Hello Heidi! Thanks for the great site. It's been very helpful to me.

I have some questions about the patina using a heat gun.

1) Does a heat gun or a torch work better?

2) Is breakage due to thermal shock a possibility if using the torch?

3) I found high temp engine block paint in gloss white, flat white, and gold as well as other colors. You used gold on at least one portrait I've seen. Is there an advantage to using gold? Does it matter if the white is flat or glossy?

4) What are these oxides you mention and where does one purchase them? What colors would I need to get the ivory effect that you got?

I would appreciate any help that you can give me. Linda

[Heidi Maiers]

Hi Linda,
Sorry for the slow response. This has been hell week. My husband is finally out of Intensive Care Unit and I can rest a little easier now and try to get caught up on everything I've missed.
The torch will work better and faster on ceramic - I just haven't gone out and bought the setup yet to do it, but will soon. I wouldn't try the torch on resin or forton, however.
I use the gold paint when I want it to look like bronze. Traditionally, bronze has thin translucent layers applied and the gold (or other colored) base shines through. Also, it allows you to wipe or brush back the patina exposing shiny highlights on the piece. For example, put on gold coat, then put on a dark patina (cold) all over and wipe off while wet. The dark will stay in the low areas and be removed from the high areas. Then when you place the thin hot patina on the surface, the light and dark areas are still visible.
I buy the dye oxides from Ron Young patinas at http://www.sculptnouveau.com/dyeoxide.html
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[Linda Beasley]

Hi Heidi!

I hope that your husband is feeling better and growing stronger each day. I also hope that you're taking some time to rest and recharge.

Thanks for the post about the heat gun patinas. At your suggestion, I did look at Ron Young's site. I'm afraid that it was all somewhat overwhelming. I saw a "cold finish for ceramics" kit but the hot finish kits all seemed to be for metal. I was under the impression that you used one for metal but I'm not sure.

The other deterent was the price for the sample kit. Not knowing whether I can learn to do this technique well enough to get the finish I want, I am hesitant to spend so much money.

I'm really enjoying the photos of the work that has been already posted to the group and hope that others will add more photos soon. Linda

[Heidi Maiers]

Hi Linda,
For the hot patinas, I bought the Dye Oxide Kit, which is a bargain at only $30. (Not the Dye Kit which is $70) It contains all dye colors (about a dozen) and all are concentrated, so are diluted with water when used. The kit also contains a couple of waxes and lacquer used to seal and shine the surface.
I also have the ceramic kit, which is huge, but that one I use for doing cold patinas.
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[Heidi Maiers]

A few more patina samples, this time on sheet metal.
I found some 5x7 cards of phos. bronze at a hobby store online (http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/k+s/k+s15053.htm), and tried experimenting with my new torch. Well, the metal is really too thin to use a torch on since there is such a fine line between not hot enough and burning the patina since it heats up so fast.
Some of these were done with a torch, others were done with a heatgun.










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