FIRE UP YOUR TORCHES

PRELIMINARY METAL AGING UNIT

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

copper, brass aluminum, propane, metal shears, metal stamps, hammer, pliers, etching solution, ice pick & findings

The kids love this metal unit.

They are a bit scared and fascinated by the propane torch. 

And once they try using it to patina their metals it is instant love.

They also learn other patina methods.

Let's see what they tried out.

Senior Liana Chie used metal stamps to emboss her name,

and acid etched her leaf design.

An ice pick was used to puncture the hole.

These next 3 were done by senior Amber Wu.
On the left we have some etched tear drops with torched patina on copper.

Center piece is lightly tapped with a blunt awl.

We call this frog butt, 

and an eyelet was put in.

It went into a sulfur solution to bring out the embossment.

The piece on the right is copper with an ammonia patina.

Dangerous but turns out really cool with lots of different blues.

These next ones by  senior Kristine Luong are all so delicate and lovely.

My husband sharpens an old screwdriver on his grinder

 and the kids use it to puncture larger openings in the metal on top of a piece of wood.

And these last ones by senior Antoniette Jabat are super cool.

The one on the left has been etched with an eyelet accent,

and the one on the right is patinaed again using the ammonia solution.

The right one also has shutters around the window openings, 

another technique I require them to try with the sharpened screwdriver and a pliers.