Playing with Copper

This weekend I did a little bit of experimenting. When I made the piece below I used part of an old copper plant stake that I had in my garden at my old house. It had a beautiful patina on it and I just loved the texture.

Well that was the only one I had, but then I got to thinking. . .

I have a bunch of new ones that have never been used in my gardening box! I figured maybe, just maybe I could "quickly" duplicate that beautiful patina?  

 These are the plant stakes I started off with - you can get them in the $1 bin at Target every spring or Home Depot whenever. They come with 6 in the pack

 

 Next step was my "beautiful" aging station on my patio, complete with Vinegar & sea salt. I prefer cidar vinegar but I was out and had to use plain ol' white vinegar. I soaked the stakes in the vinegar/salt solution (2 parts Vinegar to 1 Part salt) all day.

 

 Then that evening I placed the stakes in the lawn so that they touched the grass (thankfully the lawn needed mowing) and waited for the sprinklers to come on that night. By noon the next day this is what they looked like!

 

 I plucked them out of the ground and then pulled the copper plates off of the stakes                      (they just slide off)

 

 Aren't they pretty? They aren't quite as "blue" as the 10 year old stake, but I am sure if I wasn't so impatient, and left them out a few more days they would have gotten there.

I can't wait to use these little beauties now! Who knows, maybe they will show up in a class soon???

 

I hope you are all having a great weekend and doing something FUN and CREATIVE!!!

 

till we meet again. . .