Hello guys, hope this loads up ok. Flora is my second sculpture ever I made and first one to load up on this site. It`s made out of mild steel and bare hand painted, namely, with the finger tips "playing" with different copper tones, as in a cave man way...Nelson.

Edited March 15, 200917 yr by nelson

hello nelson - sounds intriguing but i cant see it...? might be something im doing wrong tho!

Hi Beth, I was making some changes probably at the same time you were trying to access to FLORA. Please try again, going to Metal Sculpture & Carvings Forum, and please let me know if it shows ok. From my PC, I`ve checked and it looks ok, thanks Nelson.

Nice piece Nelson! How about some info on how you did it? Particularly on how you did the finish.....paint used etc.

Hi Rotavia,
The vase is made out of mild steel sheet, with a thicker plate and a textured rod around bottom of it. Well, petals and leaves are made out of 3/16" and 1/4" plate hammered for texture and shape using O/A torch. The paint is very easy: if you give it two basic coats of copper paint, before the last coat dries, I mixed three or four tones using same copper paint and black. So as result you have these brownish copper colors (degradation) and simply dub with your fingers over the not dry yet paint coat, and paint and mix over with your finger tips. You may have the pure copper, and black to highlight or darken at will. it`s fun, easy and interesting. The advantage of doing it this way is that you can correct the tones easily at will till you get the desire effect. If the paint dubbing gets sticky, dip your fingertip in thinner or even gasoline better. I don`t use gloves, but may be a good idea.After you get the copper tones you want, let dry well a a couple weeks, dub a mix of bluish green as the Cu sulphate color, and wipe out to leave what you wish. You`ll end up with a finish of nice brigh/dull copper mix finish very appealing that dont age or change to darker, dull or otherwise unwanted tones. Hope it helps and thanks for input. Nelson.