Here is a tip for preparing your pieces for patina from @aliciahannahnaomi - “Basically once the piece has gone through to triploli (polishing compound), I clean it all off in my boiling water, cloudy ammonia and dish soap solution. Then I rinse it in clean water and pop it in clean boiling water for about 30-60sec to get hot again. When it’s warm, I dry it off quickly and paint on my patina. You have to use a glove because it’s super volatile and the piece HAS to be dry because if it’s wet the patina will mix with the water and a) start cooling down and dilute which may end up less black and b) run all over the piece which is fine if you’re fully coating it but I paint mine on in sections only and I don’t want it anywhere it isn’t supposed to be!
When it’s all painted I soak up any excess solution into a tissue gently and then run the piece in clean water one last time. Then it’s done! Nice and black! The patina I use is called Millox! Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve had countless people reach out about techniques for getting a good patina and I think the takeaways from this post are make sure your piece is clean, make sure it’s dry and having your piece be warm can definitely help you achieve a darker patina (with most patinas) but I’m not a patina expert so if you know a lot on this topic please share with us! 😃 #metalsmithsociety #jewelrytipoftheday #tipoftheday