Copper Pieces with Fern and Grass Textures

These are a couple of sample pairs of earrings I recently made.  I wanted to use the same process of roller milling smaller pieces of fern, leaves and some thin grass on to copper.  The copper was about 20 gauge to start and I think I will try 18 gauge next time.  The tighter or closer the rollers of the mill, the more the metal will flatten out.  I could have gotten the impressions a little deeper into the metal with more pressure.  These have been sanded and there is still plenty of detail from organic material.

I also used the easy and more natural process of adding patina with a hard boiled egg.  When I work on these pieces away from the studio, that is what I use.  The accent or patina color is a darker copper to a dark brown.  It's subtle and has a nice mellow look to it.  Liver of sulfur will produce a much darker to black patina.  I have sanded off the patina and you will see some shine and some darker colored areas.

I will be making more earrings like this in sterling and would like to add some amethyst beads and maybe some labradorite.  Those seem to be my favorites at the moment.