Our Patinas

One way of adding texture to a wallpiece is to construct a part from brass scrap instead of solid sheet. Offcuts from other wallpieces and vases are collected, hammered flat, and brazed together into a sheet or a loose lattice. It is then cut and folded like a normal wallpiece part, or cut and hammered into shape to make the side of a vase, keeping the brazing on the inside and out of sight, so as to leave the surface crisp. The scrap part can then be patinaed and used as any other part would be.

As with most of our techniques for creating relief within individual wallpiece parts, we often take advantage of the texture by distressing the patina—heavily brushing it with a stiff wire brush, or sometimes sanding off the surface. This is especially effective with multi-layer patinas such as ochre, dark green, and black. We also use simple flame oxidization on scrap frequently.

In recent years, we have begun to make simple, small scrap wallpieces, with a single wallpiece pan as backing, but with a small piece of scrap mounted on the surface.