hi this is nancy lt hamilton with anothervideo! yes, i do have pink hair! for those of you who have watched me before,it's going to be purple, i hope, next time. anyhoo, speaking of color, we're going tobe coloring metal today. i have one patina video which we'll have alink for. but, this one is about different kinds ofsurface treatments that i'm going to be using: acrylic paint, alcohol inks, heat, oil andflux! so, we're going to have a really good time! see you in a minute.
so, now we're going to start with some colorand we're going to do some colored pencils. what you need is metal - i'm going to usethis copper. i like the patterned metal because, like,you can see here the color tends to stay inside the little patterns and then i kinda wipeit off and it makes a pretty cool effect. you don't have to wipe it off either. you can just color the entire thing and oneof the important things, that i think is important, is to put a tooth on this - without takingoff the pattern. so, this is a probably a 220 grit. you can use 220 - 320, something like that.
but, you want to get it so that there's agood tooth on here you can do cross-hatching too. that'll have more teeth to hang onto stuffwith. so, once i get this all sanded, then i'm goingto apply the gesso. i'm going to wipe this off on my apron. that's what they're for, right? and, a little paintbrush. this is gesso. you use it to prime canvases to put painton and other things like priming metal.
so, i'm probably going to just put two coatson. i'm going to put this on and then we are goingto let this dry and come back to it. i'm going to put the other coat on so, youdon't really need to watch me paint gesso. and you can also pattern with the gesso too. you can stipple it and make all differentpatterns for the pencil to adhere to. it's not just trying to get it smooth sometimes,sometimes you just want it real textural - you can use a pallet knife or things like that. i've got my piece gessoed and i used my handy-dandy300 year old, vidal sassoon hair dryer to speed things up.
i divided half the metal in half. i'm going to do dark colors first on one sideand light colors first on the other - just to give you an idea on how it looks. and i also like to use colors that are onopposite sides of the wheel. but, you can use subtle beige and grays, ifyou want. there's no hard and fast on this. i'm just going to, kinda like when your'e,you know - using colored pencils - you can go ahead and put your color in. you can come in and cross-hatch it.
do this is you want. remember these are waxy. what i like to do - remember when i said "wipeit off"? well, i use a little alcohol on some papertowel or a cotton swab and it kinda smears it around a little bit. which is pretty cool too. i'm going to start with a light color on thisside. gotta white, sorry, or flesh - white peopleflesh, anyway. so, we're just going to come back and i'llshow you how things develop.
whoops! little too hard there! i took some of the gesso off. i'm going to do this for a few minutes andwe'll visit in 2, 3, 4, 1, 0 - ahh! here we have the, um, this side i startedwith the dark colors first and this side i started with the light colors and just pinksand yellows and purple - a little turquoise. you can do whatever you want. i put a little rubbing alcohol on here andyou can go ahead and do things like this - where you rub off some of the areas.
which i really like 'cause it's a soft, blendedlook. another thing that i played with before is:i've stuck these in the toaster oven at like 250 or something - because they're wax-basedpencils so, if you put them in the toaster oven they get soft and then you can rub 'emand smear 'em a little bit and that's what i did with this - the color got soft and wentinto the grooves on the pattern. this needs to be finished. pretty much every single thing that we aregoing to be doing today - minus one - is going to need - minus one, i had to think - needssome kind of finish on it to protect it or some kind of setting where it's buried deepinside where it won't get rubbed off.
on to the next... so, now we're moving on to alcohol inks. once again, this will need to be sealed atthe end and also put a little tooth on it. you don't have to put as deep a tooth as youwould with the paint products. but, this is pretty fun to play with. i usually use two jars of alcohol: one todo the primary rinse on my brush and the second to do the secondary rinse. and paper towel. also, you can use it to thin.
it dries really fast. you can paint it on, just like this. then you can drop color on it or you can overlaycolors because these are translucent which makes them pretty cool - where's that colori had? i want to do a little turquoise. you can run it down into the grooves or whatever. add a little shadowing on there. pick up some more of the color. almost looks black on here.
so, the darker ones will fill in, this ispatterned metal too. so, you can just play with your colors. just remember that every time that you puton a color that it, they, tend to run together because the alcohol kinda melts the colors. it's a really fun way to color your metal. it's not scratch proof but, the sealer helpsa lot. we're going to move on because we have a lotto talk about today. and you know how much i talk! another way to color metal is to use nailpolish.
it's really fun to do. it's kinda like doing your nails but, youdon't have to worry about petting the cat while they're wet! i usually, just like you do your nails, imean you guys have probably seen this happen - if you don't wear it yourself - just puton a couple of coats. i would put like three, until you get thatintensity of color. then, just let it dry and put a clear coaton it. you do want to protect this in some kind oflike, bezel setting or recessed somehow in your work.
you could do it as a pendant or earrings. but, if you're doing any kind of rings orbracelets - on any of these - you need to make sure that they don't get scratched orrubbed off. i'm not going to paint this whole thing ' causeyou probably get the idea! fingernails! we're going to move on again to the next project. next colorant is acrylic paint. i'm looking for something...oh, there it is! they also make this really pretty pearlescentliquid acrylic.
it's really shiny! it's thin so, it's fun because you can kindof put a glaze on stuff. there's two things you can do with acrylicpaint: one is you can just use the paint itself and maybe put some of this on for sparkle! the other thing is, you can use this fabulousproduct called kroma crackle and if i was together i would have the example. we'll put a little image of some of the examplesof pieces i've done with this but, this is really fun and we used the heat gun with it. so, right now what i'm going to do is - i'mthinking in my head - i'm going to use the
kroma crackle, i'm going to show you how touse this because, most of you have probably played with acrylics before - just plain but,not with this maybe. what i'm going to do is i'm going to put abase coat on my metal, of this mars black here. paint that on. i'm probably going to rub off most of it andleave the dark areas in the recesses. maybe i'm going to do half and half so i canshow you how it looks. so, i'll rub off half. now, remember, that any texture that you leaveon the metal will show up on your finished
product. you can sand this down with 600 to 800/1000grit paper to take off any lumps. similar with, you can do the same thing whenusing the gesso too. we're going to dry this and get back to youin a minute. kroma with a k, crackle with a c. we're going to paint the kroma crackle onto, i added pink while you weren't looking, and kinda dabbed this with paper towel - justto so how different it looks. i'm going to put a healthy load, heck, i'mjust going to town - of the kroma on here - that may have been too much but, maybe not.
i'm going to paint it all over. i think i did too much. i'll just wipe it on rebecca's skirt. okay. the only reason that i have the cardboardhere is so that i don't get this all over my charcoal. you know what...where, i know...i'll do this. i want to make it so you can actually seewhat's going on. i'm going to turn my fan on high because,i'm going to be using the heat gun now.
maybe not high-high - you won't be able tohear me! by the way, i set my harbor freight, well,i didn't do it - my harbor freight heat gun caught on fire - flames shooting out the end. i broke down and bought a good one. so, my dewalt and i are happy now. i've got this on high. i'm gonna - oops - start to heat it up. now, if you see it turn white, that's thekroma in action. if you don't adore what you've done you canlayer with more paint.
you can build up actually, layers and layersof the colors by painting it then putting some more kroma on it and paint and thingslike that. you can scratch through it. you should experiment and play around withthis stuff because it's really fun. i spent like two days just kroma-ing everythingthat walked by. cats look a little weird! then this has to be sealed of course and protected. we'll get to that later. on to the next fabulous project.
now, we're going to do the traditional heatcoloring of metal with the torch. i found that if you use the little - cremebrulee - there's a word - i know what it is, don't tell me - because i do know. butane torch! you have a little more control because it'slike a pin-point flame and you can write with the heat and stuff like that. i'm going to use my big old, fluffy torchhere. turn on your fan and get your torch lit. you kinda, heat it and pull away, heat itand pull away so, you can see how the color
forms and know when to stop. see: it's starting to do the yellows now andthen it goes into like pinks and purples. you can do dots on bigger pieces or with asmaller torch. so, there we've got - i need to turn thisoff. this has got a lot of purples, blues and alittle yellow in there. if i don't like this, i just throw it in thepickle and start over again. you can also let it cool and then re-hit itwith the torch to add different spots of color on it too. it's really a pretty simple thing.
there's actually online somebody who doeslike full paintings on big sheets of copper of scenes and things like that. it's just - play around with it. it's another toy, another thing in your arsenalof coloring metal. we're going to go on to the next thing youcan do with heat treating. i'm just going to show you the heat treating,torch treating coloring with the bronze and silver so, you can have a comparison. the other metal i was using was copper whichis one of the best for heat coloring. you can get the, the bronze will also color- i mean brass, excuse me.
yep, see we're getting color there. it's the rainbow! pull up so that you can check your color. i don't know if you can see any this. that went black pretty quick - purpley black. i think you get much greater range with thecopper. now, we're going to try it with the silver. i pretty much know what's going to happenhere but, this is jewelry making: it's always full of surprises.
mostly, you big colors with silver, will bethrough liver of sulfur. i like that pattern up there but, it's prettymuch gray and the white, that's coming up is the fine silver in the metal. it is not a bad coating - it is what it is. it can be brass brushed off. see the difference between that and our coppercolors. you get a greater range with copper with theheat treating. one other way to color metal is - you don'thave to have a torch. you can use a hot plate (or a stove) and this,once again, well, not once again.
you can control the color somewhat by onlyputting it on certain parts of the hot plate or you can place the whole thing on here and... what this does and the heat gun you can also use to color metal - set on high by theway - is, it's slower than the torch because it heats up slower so, you have more controlover when to ...like, see i'm starting to get color - oh!. so, i might want to move it over here. you have more control over the colors. i like that so, i can pull that off now. it's still continuing to change color - whichi don't like.
i lost it all! ah! i can let this cool and put it back on hereand re-color and try to get some of that, those brighter colors. see where the tongs are, it's a little...thecolor's still there because it drew - it's a heat sink - it drew some of the heat away. so, with this, you'd probably want to leaveit on for less time than i did. you can also use your heat gun with this. i don't think a hair dryer would work becausei think you need to be above 950 degrees.
we're going to continue to move on. thank you. if you let your piece get, go through allthe color ranges, it will eventually come to a browny-gray, for the copper, and youcan treat this almost like liver of sulfur. i've got a piece of 0000 steel wool here andyou can buff off highlights with it or leave it as is. so, it's another way of darkening your metal. this is more of a brown than the gray thatyou get with liver of sulfur patina. that's that.
by the way, i don't know if i mentioned but,ah, usually i let them air cool because sometimes when you quench, in water, they...you'll losesome of the bright colors that you have. so, i would experiment with that also. what works for you and your torch, how hotyou're heating it, all of these variables - it's a crap shoot. we're going to go on to the next. now, i'm going to do a little trick. handi-flux - it's a paste flux. there's also a gel flux that you can use.
i don't know what it's called: maybe gel flux? just sayin'. anyway, what i've got is a little rubber stampdo-dah here and a paintbrush with flux on it. i'm going to paint it on to the rubber stamp. it's very exciting. it's actually pretty cool. then i'm going to take it, and i have to standup for this because you want it just...you don't want to move it.
i get it in position, drop it...oh, i movedit...dang. i'll try it again. we might have one that actually works. then peel it up. see, it's a little smudged. i'm going to do another one just to see ifi can. let's see how skilled i am at painting thingsand smashing them into metal! okay, let's do it over. here.
drop, ah...don't move, push and then you haveto be careful about pulling up. that's a little better. okay, so now, next step is we're going togo over to the torch and heat this sucker up and it's like magic. see you over there. remember when we stamped the flux on to themetal? well, the flux has dried a little bit andwhat i'm going to do now is i'm going to put the torch to it and you'll see what happens. very exciting.
ooops, fan. light. i'm doing the same thing i did with the coloring of the metal. i'm going to keep an eye on my colors andstop when i like what i've got. see you can heat on one end and make like...whatare those called? consecutive swirl things. you can do polka dots, lines...can't do alot with this torch because it's such a big tip.
but, i'm trying to be outside the metal, likethat. then pulling off so that i can see what happens. so, i kinda like that color. i'm going to stop and i will hold it up sothat you can see it better. got some great violet up here and some goodpurples. so, i'm going to let this cool off. i might even take it off my charcoal so thatit stops coloring. i'll plop that over there to cool and i'llcontinue when it's cooled...i'll show you what we do next.
okay, so now, this is cooled down...obviously,i'm holding it. i'm going to put it in water and i'm goingto wipe off the flux with my fingers. by the way, this handi-flux has fluoridesin it so you don't want to inhale it. see what you get, is a pattern on your metal,that's from the rubber stamp. now, this technique is better for things like...thatare more basic patterns. fine detail gets kind of smushed out. but, it's kinda cool that you can put thesepatterns on your metal and play with them that way. anyway, that's that.
oooh, the bell rang! must be time for round two. this technique i don't know, i just startedplaying with it. i thought i'd share it with you. i ...i...it looks like "hell" but, it wassupposed to say "hello". this is copper and i used 3-in-1 oil to paint"hello all". then put it in liver of sulfur. i'm thinking i'm going to try linseed oiland see how that works. you will get to witness it with me.
i'm also thinking why not paint it on a patternand see if i can stamp with the oil. because, what made me think of this was oiland water don't mix, right? so, this is not going to wash off in the water,i mean in the liver of sulfur, which is water-based. this will probably, eventually over time disintegratethis two cent stamp but, i don't think anyone's going to be crying. oh, yes mother...thank you. i'm going to paint something on here. how about polka dots - they're always a go-to. maybe some squiggles.
just to get an idea. i mean, you don't have a ton of fine controlhere. the sun is rising! so, that's about as arty as i'm going to geton this because, i don't want to waste time. these you can clean with turp or hot soapy...i'musing dawn (detergent) on it - soapy water. now....here's my liver...hold your nose. i'm going to drop this in and hopefully itworks somewhat. like i said, this is...oh, i didn't stamp...ah! get over there.
kinda like we did with the flux on it. there's a pattern...ahah...let's see. alright, it worked! so, that's my new invention. i don't know, somebody probably already inventedit. but, i would put this in baking soda to stopthe action and rinse it off and then seal this too or bury it. you can take the oil off with hot, soapy waterand a toothbrush. it's pretty cool.
the linseed oil worked really well. much better than the 3-in-1 oil. i've got a lot more detail now. look, you can even see my stamp. that's for that part. moving on. the last thing that we need to talk aboutis sealers. i get a lot of questions about this. none of them are permanent, forever, forever,forever.
just know that. if you're doing, sealing a ring or a braceletagainst oxidation or sealing in a patina it's always a good idea to get in your mind thatyou might have to re-seal it some day. just sayin' unless it's protected, like wetalked about with the sunken bezel or something. there's a whole bunch of different kinds. the golden makes a really good medium. they also have gloss sealers and things likethat. you could also buy them in flat matte, semi-gloss,and gloss. these are good for the painted surfaces.thenthis is everbrite protectaclear which, i just
read, says it protects against acid rain! ahhh! which is always nice to have for your jewelry. this doesn't, is not to be used with the paintedsurfaces. but, you can put it directly on your cleanmetals like when you liver of sulfur or something you can put this on or for protecting yourplain silver or brass or bronze - to keep it from oxidizing. modge podge is another choice. they all have varying rates of effectiveness.
this is probably one of the stronger onesbecause it's anti-scratch, anti-corrosion resistant. then i also use a resin spray occasionallywhich leaves a better, smoother finish because it's a spray-on finish. read the directions about what it works for. you know, honestly, just spray everythingand check it out. see how it works. it's not going to be the end of the world. that's why i always do test pieces.
then the other day i came up with idea foranother type of sealer. i used liquid polymer clay, clear liquid polymerclay. i put three coats on this little sucker herefor protecting the finish on this. now, know, that every time you put a finishon that the color changes somewhat. i'm going to just use the modgey podgey onthe ones we did today. to give you an idea on the change. i probably should throw that part out. this probably would be better with a mattesurface - who knows - it might look really cool being shiny.
i'm just going to paint it up really fast. i usually do 2-3 coats to really keep thefinish. this dries clear so, we have to wait a whileon that one. actually, no actually your going to wait along time because i'm not going to show you when it's done. maybe. we'll see. depends on my mood. so, basically that's it on sealers.
like i said, you know, they are not permanentbut, for now they're fabulous. we'll watch paint dry and get back to you. so, that's the "fin", the end of our coloringmetal video. some of you who follow me on facebook mighthave gone: "wait, i thought she was doing a newsletter on this?" well, i changed my mind. decided to do a video instead. i hope you like it. don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribeand don't forget to comment.
thank you so much, i really appreciate allof you and ciao!
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