Fire Painting Copper

I am now SO enthused with copper and fire (I think I've already admitted to pyromanic tendencies) that I'm ready to really play with my torch and metals this weekend.  I've been looking at how to "paint" the copper using my torch and found two pretty interesting sites.

The first one, by John Searles, looks like it's for a larger torch than I use, but I'm going to experiment anyway since what I'm wanting to "paint" are much smaller pieces of copper than he appears to be referring to. Still, I plan to practise with the salt & baking soda recipe for a red patina. I've got so many ideas bouncing around in my head right now!  If you want to see John's explanation for patinaing with fire, go over to Metal Patinas & Coatings to check it out. (he uses other things than fire to get interesting patinas!)



Jen's "design" by moving
the torch in and out

 Then there's a post by Jen Lowe Designs that has a few interesting points.  In this post (from 2007) she's just starting to play/experiment with copper & fire.  And, that's one of her best pieces of advice; excepting the rules of safty, toss the rest of the "rules" for "painting" with a torch and just play!  Her article can be found on this page of Jen Lowe Designs and it's fun and interesting.

I'll keep y'all updated on what happens with my playing around (and hope that no firemen were called in the execution of these experiments.... unless he's really cute.... and planning to ask me out....)