Verdigris is a natural patina that makes copper turn into a greenish or turquoise colour, with a slightly dusty matt effect. It happens when copper is exposed to the elements – as you can see from many cupolas and weathervanes. But you don’t need real copper to get a verdigris effect – you can create one yourself.
Chris from Sydney Australia shares this project to give a verdigris effect to a wooden picture frame. He did this as a trial run to see if it worked before doing it on his front door, but decided in the end that while it worked for the picture frame, it would probably have been too much for a whole wooden front door.
There are a number of ways to achieve a verdigris effect – the easiest is to just buy a verdigris effect kit. These usually consist of a bronze or copper paint and an oxidiser – usually acetic acid based. You can buy these in good craft stores or online here
Alternatively make your own verdigris effect by building up and rubbing down layers of paint. You’ll need some patience as each layer of paint or primer has to dry completely – and there are several layers.
Materials
- a good primer appropriate to surface to be painted
- One small can of reddish brown paint in satin or eggshell
- One small can of copper glaze paint
- Small cans of light green, light blue and white acrylic matt paint
- brushes
- cloths or small sponges to rub the paint
- painting tray
Instructions
Prime the surface you want to paint with an appropriate primer. Use a brush and make sure you work into all the crevices. Leave it to dry thoroughly.- Coat the primed surface with a medium reddish-brown satin or eggshell finish paint. The colour should be as close to your copper glaze color as possible. Leave to dry thoroughly.
- Brush a coat of copper glaze over the dry base coat. Apply two or three layers to build it up if the glaze is thin.
- Dampen a small cloth or sponge and squeeze out dry. Dip it into flat black paint and blot off any excess on a piece of newspaper. Dab the black paint gently into the crevices of your object or if the surface is even dab it randomly. This black simulates the coating that copper gets before the verdigris develops.
- Pour a small quantity of each of the light blue, light green and white matt acrylic paint onto a paint tray, taking care to keep the colours separate. Take a damp wrung out sponge and dip it into all of the 3 colours and start to dab the paint onto the surface of the object you’re painting, using a pressing motion – don’t spread it on. Let the colours mix to create an effect like verdigris – making sure you let some of the background copper glaze show through. You can also dab on some more of the black where needed. use a bit of trial and error until you get the result you’re looking for.
- Take a clean piece of cloth and dab it all over the surface to take off some of the paint and help to mattify the surface and give the chalky effect that’s so characteristic of verdigris.
- Repeat the paint addition to create another layer – but don’t cover exactly the same areas you did before – try to make it natural and again leave some of the copper to show through. You should be covering a smaller surface area this time.
- Blot again with a clean rag.
- Repeat another 2 or 3 times, each time making sure you cover slightly less than before and blotting the surface with a clean rage between paint applications.
- Take a clean damp sponge and dip it into the white paint then blot it off on a sheet of newspaper. Dab the sponge sparingly onto the surface as appropriate to add highlights.
This process is a bit trial and error so it’s always a good idea to have an actual verdigris object or photo close to hand to use as a point of reference.
For a quick and easy verdigris effect on plastic – see our feature on making garden candle holders from cheap traditional plastic garden planters – a similar verdigris effect is achieved with some gilding wax. »Making garden candle holders
