My New & Nutty Copper Patina!

I've been spending every spare moment Christmas crafting over here for the past week or two, so brace yourselves for a minor deluge of craft posts doused in glitter, fake greenery and PURE JOY. (Or possibly frustration, if you're like me and not so good with wiring things onto fake greenery. [Why is everything so slippery, and why do I keep poking myself?! ARG!] But that's for another post.)

First up, lots of you suggested that I patina my last nutcracker - the one that looked so terrible after I tried painting it white - so I decided to give that a go. I haven't tried this finish since my seahorse tutorial, so this time I went with a slightly more colorful approach:

I also steampunked him out a bit by adding goggles, a gear emblem, and faux rivets.

The goggles are made from two thin slices of a pencil (I used my Dremel to cut them off) and a thin strip of leather:

I glued these to his hat, and then used a paint product called "Beads In A Bottle" to make the rivets. I think it worked pretty well, and the four-pack with gold, silver, copper, and black was only about $9 at JoAnn's. (Link goes to Amazon, where it's cheaper.) I'm sure I'll be using this stuff a lot more in the future!

This actually isn't a bad look with the white and silver, but my paint job was still beyond salvaging, so on to the copper spray paint!

I didn't take process photos of the patina, but I did everything essentially the same as my seahorse statue, with one major change: after the copper base coat, instead of spraying the statue black and then rubbing it down with mineral spirits, I just used a wine red acrylic paint, painting it on and wiping it off again with a rag - no spirits needed. This gave the statue a more iron-rusted look under the teal patina streaks, and also makes it more colorful and less grungy-looking:

I used less of the teal wash, too, since I wanted more of the red-washed copper to show. I know it's not terrible realistic, but I still think it's a pretty convincing metal illusion. What do you guys think?

Aaand one last beauty shot:

I'm off to take pictures of more of my finished crafts, so stay tuned!

Oh! And while I'm talking nutcrackers, can I just say how fun it is to see all YOUR versions? Here are just a few that you guys have sent in:


Nadia used glitter, star gems, and rhinestones to accent her gold and silver nutcrackers:

And Amanda A. found some extra tiny nutcracker ornaments from Walmart, which she decked out with glitter, keys, and *wings*!

Those wings are brilliant. I wish I had some big ones to stick on my guys!

And finally, my friend Darla of Bakingdom painted her nutcrackers in dreamy pastels, and then turned them into art pieces to hang on her wall!

Go here to see her full tutorial, and also to see the rest of Darla's decorations, which you must - MUST - see. Everything's so bright and sweet and glittery that it makes me despair of ever having decorating chops even half as good. I love/hate you, Darla, seriously. Come decorate my house next year? [Bambi eyes]

Hope you all had a great weekend! And please keep sharing your holiday crafts and decorations over on the Epbot FB page - it really brightens my day, seeing what my geek peeps are up to!