Earrings for etsy shop

I am loving using patination in my pieces! I am really happy with how these patinated copper and silver studs turned out, I plan to sell them in my Etsy shop!

Finished Ring

I love the effect that the patina gives to the copper! it reminds me of the slimy mossy surfaces you see in rockpools. And the way the patina solution flows to the shape of the ring gives it that organic, unpredictable quality that you find in the natural world.

Patina Earrings

Ring before patination

Patina Ring

For this next piece i want to make a large ring, like a showpiece. Using the copper and patina technique I'll get the same colours that can be seen on my patina necklace, the shank will be sterling silver. I would ultimately like for these pieces to look like a collection.

It's so blue and stuff...

My patinated necklace is complete! And i really love it...

The pictures above are close ups of the patinated copper elements. I sealed the patination with a matte waterbased glaze.

The above picture is from my photography book, 'Into The Deep'. It was this picture that i used as a reference and inspiration for this piece.


I am really pleased with how my necklae turned out. I learned alot about patination, a process i have never used before. If i ever make this necklace again, one thing i would change however, is the lenth of the chain. Personally i love longer chains, but if this chain was shorter the patinated elements would be spread out and ultimately better displayed.

applying patina solution

above are copper elements that i placed between two piece of cotton wool soaked with the patina solution. The cotton wool starting sticking to the copper and gave it a thick blue coating with was not ideal...

I then tried painting the solution on the pieces which seems to work better. The solution still pools in the grooves of the metal so it gives it a natural 'unpainted' look.

patina earrings...?

Once i had patinated the copper elements for my necklace, i noticed how lovely the inside looked. I would like to make earrings with these elements but i will change the silver attachment. The piece of silver wire, at the moment, will be covered and bent into a jump ring which will allow it to be attached to the necklace. For the earrings i will solder a longer pieces of wire and mould it to some of the grooves in the copper so that it flows with the piece and doesn't look 'stuck' on.


above are some scribbles from my design book while I was thinking about how to attach the shepards hook/wire to the earrings.

test pieces continued...

The above picture shows my copper elements that were taken out of the solution and then put back in, to further the patination... they were left in for too long and started to disintegrate.


The above test pieces were successful :)

patina test pieces

little copper clammies, sweet...

I thought that folding the elements and opening them back up again might make them more interesting and detailed once they have been patinated. And in doing so they will follow on from the last necklace I made, and look like little clams!

copper/patina necklace?

I have never patinated copper before, and thought it might be interesting to incorporate it into a neckpiece. I have lots of these little forged copper 'coral' pieces that i can play around with...


I would like to patinate these elements and work them into a messy/busy chain with irregular links. Depending on what the patinated pieces look like, they could have the appearance of something rusted or crusty that could be found under the sea?