How To Patina Copper Pennies – Easy DIY Tutorial With Video
Do you want to know how to patina copper pennies? I love penny projects and I wanted to try to patina copper pennies and create a fun display with our initials on wooden letters that I had on hand. I’ll show you how to get that patina finish and antique look on pennies and then create a lovely display.
What is copper patina? It’s that green patina color that shows up on the surface of copper items giving copper an aged look and a rich color.
If you want to know how to clean copper pieces please check out my other post regarding that.
How To Patina an Copper Item
Let’s get started on the patina process.
1. Wash Your Pennies –
Wash your pennies with Dawn soap, hot water, and baking soda to clean off the fingerprints, oils and dirt.
2. Drain, Rinse, & Dry your Copper
Drain the soapy baking soda water, rinse the pennies with clean water . The best way to do this is to use a strainer. Let them dry completely, you don’t want any residual moisture.
3. Soak copper in vinegar and salt mixture
To create the patina solution, mix together equal parts of white vinegar and table salt (non-iodized salt) so that it coats all of the pennies. Let the pennies soak for 30 minutes so the chemical reaction process and chemical reaction can take place. I did this in a small plastic container, but you could use a glass container like a bowl, or perhaps a bucket.
4. Drain the mixture
Drain out the mixture but don’t rinse the pennies with clean water.
5. Air dry the copper
Place the pennies on a baking sheet and let them dry completely so the oxidation process can complete its magic. You can sprinkle with more salt as they’re drying if you wish. Pennies will patina at different rates so you can play with the timing to get your desired color.
Once they’re dry they are ready to use. You’ll have a lovely patina that may be a green color, brown color, and sometimes you can even get a little blue patina color. This is one of the simplest methods for artificial patination vs the natural patina aging process
If you want to repeat the process you can also make the mixture above and put it in a spray bottle. Spray it on and let them air dry.
If you don’t like the idea of laying the copper on a pan, you can always put it on wax paper.
I like this version because it doesn’t have any dangerous chemicals.
Now if you don’t want your copper to oxidize, you can always seal it in a plastic bag or container until the next use. This works with silver as well.
How To Patina Copper Pennies DIY
I had these plain letters that I wanted to spruce up. I decided to use these lovely patina pennies for the project.
I placed my pennies onto the letters.
I hot glued the pennies into place.
Then you can hang them up in your home.
There are so many possible places to use these fun letters.
After making this project I had several people giggle and tell me that it’s funny “JC Penny”. I didn’t even think about that, and it is pretty funny. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
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How To Patina Copper – Easy DIY Tutorial With Video
Equipment
- Hot Glue Gun
Ingredients
- Dawn and baking soda
- Vinegar and salt
- Wood Letters
Instructions
- Wash your pennies with Dawn and baking soda.
- Drain the soapy baking soda water, rinse the pennies off, and let them dry.
- Mix together equal parts of vinegar and salt, so that it coats all of the pennies.
- Let the pennies soak for 30 minutes.
- Drain out the mixture.
- Place the pennies on a baking sheet and let them dry completely.
- Hot glued the pennies into place.
- Hang and enjoy!
SHARING IS CARING…PLEASE PIN THE BELOW IMAGE:
I just need to pick your brain about everything!! You are SO creative!! I will admit that I would want all the pennies to be more bright and shiny? How could I do that?
XOOX
Jodie
#senisal
Thank you so much Jodie – you are so very sweet. So I completely understand and yes – I love shiny pennies as well. For that you would use one of these options to clean the pennies – https://chascrazycreations.com/copper-cleaning-hacks/
I knew it was possible to clean the patina off of pennies, I did not know it was possible to add it. Great tip!
Thank you Vanessa, I like to clean them off and make them shiny as well. Nice to be able to do both.
This is too cool! What a fun project. I think the kids would enjoy making this with me! Maybe one for their rooms!
Thank you Kristi, and I’m thrilled you want to do this with your kids. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Love a good upcycle project – though obviously you could spend pennies they look like they cost more than the pennies used this way!
Thank you so very much Kristen 🙂
I had no idea you could do that to pennies! Very cool!
Thank you so much Julie 🙂
Great tip and project, Chas. Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJs!
Thank you so very much Ann, it was a lot of fun to experiment 🙂
Thank you for sharing at #ThursdayFavoriteThings. Pinned and shared.
Thank you so much Marilyn 🙂
Thank you for sharing at #OverTheMoon. Pinned and shared.
Thanks Marilyn, have a wonderful week!