Working with Copper & Buttons

A while ago I bought a large sheet of copper for a specific project and only used a small part of it. It’s been sitting in my studio gathering dust ever since. I’ve been thinking for a while what to with it as I don’t like the way that copper stains the skin, so wasn’t sure about making jewellery out of it. Then as I began experimenting with oxidising silver recently, someone suggested trying the same with copper…so here are my first experiments.

My first attempts were terrible as I was just playing by ear and not really sure what I was doing. I left the copper in the oxidising solution for over a minute and treated it the same as silver, but the results weren’t great. The oxidisation came off in flakes which was odd as that doesn’t happen with silver. So I mucked about with these first few pieces and sanded them back and re-oxidised or re-heated them to see what happened. I was just playing about- I don’t think I’ll ever use them, unless I sand them right back and start again.

But in all seriousness I wanted to find out how to oxidise copper properly without the flakiness, so I asked Dot for her help. In her studio up in Newport on Tay we did a few experiments and found that the less time the copper had in the liquid the better the oxidisation. It also worked better if the metal was very clean and hot, so it got a proper sanding down and polish before getting bathed in boiling water – then a quick dunk into the liver of sulphur solution and out again and straight into cold water to stop the process quickly.

It’s amazing to watch the copper turn black – it happens so quickly and kind of spreads across the surface of the metal as if it’s being painted on by an invisible artist.

So I’ve been making lots of rectangular blanks and imprinting them with patterns. I ran a few of them through the mill and used leaves and lace and I think I prefer the leaf pattern most – it ties in with my silver leaf pendants and also with the flower buttons I intend to use for these pieces.

I also got a bit of a refresher lesson in riveting from Dot as well, as I want to attach buttons to my copper blanks.  same up with a great way of simplifying my original idea – it’s always good to consult with an expert when trying to figure out the best way to approach a problem. My idea was to rivet the buttons to the copper using two separate pieces of silver – this is incredibly fiddly and has resulted in many a button breakage. I first tried it using two pieces of balled silver wire and although I liked the result, the process was far too annoying to repeat.

So instead Dot suggested making a small staple from silver wire and riveting the button to the copper with this – not only would it hold the button in place properly during the process, it would also mean I could do all the riveting at once. Our first attempts weren’t great as the staple always veered off to one side rather than staying straight, but this gave me enough experience to go home and try it out for myself and experiment with the technique.

So this morning I took one of my textured blanks – one with a leaf pattern and fully sanded, polished and cleaned it. I’d already soldered on a loop for a chain or leather thong previously so didn’t need to do that today. I made my staple and selected a button. Here it is prior to getting sanded and cleaned:

I then imersed it into boiling water and gave it a quick dunk in the Liver of Sulphur solution. I don’t think the dunk was long enough as some of the copper didn’t turn completely black, but I quite liked the look and didn’t want to risk dunking it in again in case the black started flaking off.

As soon as I’d oxidised the copper and was ready to rivet, I realised my mistake. I should’ve left the oxidisation process til last and done that after I’d added the button as I would need to sand and file down the rivets once they were banged into place and this would mess up the nice oxidised surface on the back of the pendant. Never mind – the first one is always a prototype and a way of learning what not to do next time around.

I broke the first button by banging too hard and so decided on using a lovely red one next and figured out a technique of banging down the rivets without putting too much pressure on the button itself – this involved a tea towel and a cocktail stick and I won’t bore you with the details. It’s taken a lot of practice and it’s still really fiddly but this is my first success:

I think the red works really well with the black. I had to file and sand down the rivets on the back and then re-oxidise this by just painting on some liver of sulphur, so the back looks a bit messy, but this one is a pendant I’m going to wear, so I’m not fussed about that and will know for next time to leave the oxidisation until last.

What do you think?

One thought on “Working with Copper & Buttons

  1. Anna Stassen says:

    Wow that looks really really gorgeous! I love the contrast of the red against the oxidised copper (^o^) I love the cherry blossom shape of the button too (>_<)

    Sakura xx

Comments are closed.