Saturday, November 10, 2007

I love black patina...


I've been so busy at work and I am just really tired everyday after I get home. But I'd still like to do a little soldering experiment when I have time. I got a big bottle of black patina solution and tried it on the stuff I made. I love it!!! It gives the piece a nice dark antique black finish (which doesn't really show well in the photo; it's actually not as shiny as it appears to be). To me, the black finish has more personalities and charms than silver. But I am still facing another problem... when I use images printed out from a color laser printer, some of the ink get greasy and makes the art looks oily under the glass... I guess it's because the soldering iron is so hot, it made the ink re-surface to the top of the paper. I guess if I can't get it solved, I will have to do little collage art for every piece by hand (like the "Dairy Queen" in my earlier post) which I enjoy doing it anyway. But I'd love to know if there is any solution for my problem...

3 comments:

Kelly Medina said...

These look so great! The ball chain is a perfect fit for these. Wonderful stuff :)

In regards to the prints, yah, it sounds like the toner is remelting when you are using the iron on it. What temperature is it when you use it? Laser printers use a fuser that heats and presses (up to 200 Celsius) to bond the toner (plastic powder) to the paper.

The best option would be using your inkjet instead of the laser printer. Unless you can re-arrange the steps so that you aren't heating the image or try a different temperature on your iron.
The toner can handle some heat, but not too hot and not too long.

Hope that helps.

You are rocking on the soldering, woman! :)

mushroommeadows said...

wow, those are sooo lovely!!! I love really love the black finish; it does look nice with your art! :)

Flora Chang said...

Yeah, Kelly, I do need to try to use images printed from my own inkjet. The soldering iron's temperature is 750 degree F. Yikes!!!
Yeah you shoud try soldering... it's so fun but it does requires lots patience. It is labor of love... *-*