My aunt and I finally had a chance a to sit down and try out the new Swellegant patina system that I picked up at Bead & Button. The system includes a metal paint that actually turns the surface of a piece into metal! You can use it on metal, polymer clay and a whole slew of other surfaces. Once you have the metal coat, there are patinas you apply to give that lovely aged and matte finish of weathered metal. The final part of the system is to use dye oxides - super intense pigments that stain the metal. You can discover all the ins and outs of Swellegant from B'Sue Boutiques. Okay, in case you aren't picturing it - this is the magic of Swellegant! The piece on the left is an inexpensive pewter piece. The right is a copper patina treatment using the metal paints, patina and dyes. This is what the pieces look like with the metal coat in bronze. I did 3-4 coats before the final coat when you do the patina. You need to do the patina while the last coat of metal is still wet. We found that just dabbing the patina on in a juicy coat without brushing it on works best. It's more of a flooding it with dabs of the patina. Then you need to just hold your horses and wait at least an hour for the chemical reaction of the patina to take place. At first it doesn't look like it's working, but give it some time. And even then it doesn't look like much until you do the final two steps. And this is where we ran into a problem. Rosanne and I were expecting magical results, that we'd brush on the metal and patina and bam - it would be this awesome transformation in these vivid, bright colors. But here is the issue, Swellegant is fussy stuff. You need to do a little artsy-fartsy mojo to get the best results. And I'll share some of those tips below. Now if you aren't the artsy type, don't worry - with a little trial and error you can get it. And this is where things get really exciting - the colorful dyes. My favorite technique with the dyes is to add in a bit of the white dye on top of the color. I would paint on the dye, let it dry, add another color, dab a little here, a little there. After the dyes are dry you take a little bit of the metal paint on your finger (gloved, of course) and run it over the raised edges of the metal to add in some highlights. I really feel like this is the key to getting a good piece, it just makes everything sing. If you like instant gratification - this is not the coloring system for you. It takes a lot of back and forth to get good results, there is some serious wait time between coats and then after it's ALL said and done you need to wait 48-72 hours and apply a matte sealer. Is it worth it? During the process I was ready to say no, but after giving it some time and working at a little more - I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. And now no piece of metal is safe in my house! Rosanne on the other hand felt it was too time intensive and didn't get consistent enough results. I will try to win her over again, probably at my retreat this fall because I am so using these in one of my classes! Oh and another tip - you can't mess it up, use light coats of paint each time to avoid losing details. But if you get to the end and hate your results, just hit it with another coat of metal and patina again to start over. Here are my results on various metals (mostly pewter) and polymer clay. Scroll down to the bottom for some of my formulas. Brass Patina Bronze Patina Ancient Bronze Patina Copper Patina Golden Patina Acid Green (These are Rosanne's pieces) Copper Acid Bath Rusted Iron Midsummer Night's Dream Patina Formulas The forumlas I used are listed in the order of application, be sure to read all directions and follow the steps correctly for best results. MC = Metal Coat, P = Patina, D=Dye-Oxide 1. Brass Patina - Brass (MC), Tiffany Blue (P), Aqua Green (D), White (D), Brass (MC) 2. Bronze Patina - Bronze (MC), Tiffany Blue (P), Aqua Green (D), White (D), Bronze (MC) 3. Ancient Bronze - Bronze (MC), Tiffany Blue (P), Aqua Green (D) repeat dye 2 x, Bronze (MC) 4. Copper Patina - Copper (MC), Tiffany Blue (P), Aqua Green (D) White (D), Copper (MC) 5. Golden Patina - Brass (MC) Green-Gold Verdigris (P), Aqua Green (D), White (D), Sun Yellow (D), Brass (MC) 6. Acid Green - Bronze (MC), Green-Gold Verdigris (P) 7. Copper Acid Bath - Copper (MC), Green-Gold Verdigris (P), Tangerine Orange (D), Chartreuse (D), White (D), Chartreuse (D), Copper (MC) 8. Rusted Iron - Iron (MC), Tiffany Blue (P), Blood Red (D), Silver (MC), Iron (MC) 9. Midsummer Night's Dream - Bronze (MC), Purple (D), Indigo (D), Purple (D), White (D) Bronze (MC), Brass (MC)