Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Should Newly Made Copper Bracelets Be Aged?

As promised in my previous post, I made variations of the copper bangle bracelet (directions for first bracelet from Contemporary Copper Jewelry)and photographed the newly made bracelets. Copper naturally tarnishes
easily giving an aged look, but not a dark color for quite some time. To keep the first bracelet relatively shiny, to remove the tarnish I rubbed it
with #0000 steel wool and an occasional rub with a polishing cloth.

Liver of sulfur is used to age copper.
After reading several articles about aging copper bracelets in liver of sulfur, I decided to use photographs to compare how each bracelet looked before and after aging. The bracelets were dipped in warm liver of sulfur solution only a minute or so until they turned black. After removing from the solution, and rinsing in water, I dried them thoroughly. Steel wool and a polishing cloth were used to polish and bring out the highlights.

Original Copper Pipe Bangle Bracelet
Original Copper Pipe Bangle Bracelet
several weeks old polished with steel wool and polishing cloth

Copper Swirl Top Bangle Bracelet not aged
Copper Swirl Top Bracelet Not Aged

Copper Swirl Top Bangle Bracelet Aged

Copper Swirl Top Bracelet Aged
Handcrafted Copper Medallion Bangle Bracelet
Handcrafted Copper Medallion Bangle Bracelet
Not Aged
Hancrafted Copper Medallion Bangle Bracelet Aged

Handcrafted Copper Medallion Bangle Bracelet Aged
Copper Bangle Bracelet
Copper Wire Wrapped Bangle Bracelet Not Aged
Copper Bangle Bracelet Aged
Copper Wire Wrapped Bangle Bracelet Aged
Which bracelet do you think is most attractive? Aged or not aged? My preference has changed to preferring the aged bracelets. These bracelets can be found on our website http://www.gemstonebeadjewelry.com/.

5 comments:

  1. I love copper in all its incarnations, bright to brown. Your bracelets are charming. You might also want to try gun blue for a different look and it smells much better than los, lol. Good luck in your jewelry adventures.
    Lois
    http://www.abeadedaffair.com
    http://copperwirejewelers.ning.com

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  2. I agree with you...The aged is really stunning!

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  3. I love your copper bracelets! The aged look on them is beautiful.

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  4. Thanks for sharing, I really like this informative post & wants to read more post about gemstone beads and gemstone exporter.

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