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Liquid Metals | Gum Ammoniac | Ormoline Gilding Medium
Liquid Metals
Roberson’s
Liquid Metal
When I was first given samples of these to test and review, I did wonder
if they were what they said they were – metal in liquid form.
I spoke with the person who actually made them, to get more of an
insight into their properties and possibilities, before I put them to
the test. When testing new products I always try to approach it with an
open mind and also try not to compare the product to others that are
similar.
It’s just as well I take this approach because there is little on the
market that this product can be compared to!
I had four ‘colours’ for testing, Royal Gold; Classic Gold; Pewter and
Blackened Bronze.
You can, for the most part, tell the colour from the bottle, but the
nice thing with these Liquid Metals is they have an actual sample
painted onto the outside label – excellent, because you can really see
and feel the finished result.
I choose Classic Gold for starters - ok, so off with its lid, to start
the testing. There is no need to shake the bottle of these Acrylic based
Liquid Metals, you can just dive in!
The consistency is that of cream, not thin cream or thick cream, it’s
just creamy and therefore clings well to the brush. All the Liquid
Metals are water miscible, so washing brushes and clean up is easy, also
another interesting point is that the product does wash out of the
brush, so you have no residual particles left in the brush.
My main testing was on black and white paper; smooth card of about 120
gm; also leather, glass, plastic and mount board. They went on all
surfaces with ease, but as you would expect the more absorbent the
paper/surface the more product you need but the finish is then thicker.
They
shine and show up exceptionally well on a black background, it really
sets them off.
These two examples were just quickly written with a Rigger brush to give
me an initial reaction and test the feel of the consistency of these
Liquid Metals.
I liked the way the Liquid Metals could be used to give raised letters
and decorations.
It was easy to make raised dots of various sizes and give an embossed
look to the side of a letter for instance. Letters/flower petals were
given a ‘cushioned’ look and feel without too much trouble.
I found it simple to pop down a letter with a well loaded brush, then
leaving it to dry before inking around it. The Liquid Metals could be
used very successfully to give an ‘illuminated’ look to lettering and
decorative finishes to almost any work.
Having laid down an area of the Liquid Metal, I then took a ‘needle
point’ Joseph Gillott 303 dip pen filled with Permanent Pigmented ink and wrote a few
letters on the surface. The ink went onto the surface smoothly and
didn’t bead up nor did the nib scratch the surface, the effect was
interesting and the finish good.
For calligraphers who are after a metallic look to the background of
their work this would work well.
I also thinned the Liquid Metals with water (50/50) and used them with a
dip pen – not that they were made to be used like ink – but you have to
‘give it a go’! They wrote well, once you had persuaded the thinned
liquid metal to leave the nib, I found I needed to dip the tip in the
liquid to start writing, but as they were not designed to be used in
this way I though it was a bonus!
Thinning the Liquid Metals to this extent did however give other ideas
for their use especially as they don’t tarnish. This exercise also
showed how well these preparations are loaded with the metallic powder –
quality product.
I cut out a rough ‘dragonfly’ stencil just to see
if the LM’s could be used for stencilling. I under painted the wings of
the Dragonfly with Classical Transparent ink before stencilling on some
Royal Gold Liquid Metal. I outlined the wings with Permanent Pigmented
Ink - Grey Paynes. The thorax and head were painted with the Royal Gold
and the eyes were coloured with the Blackened Bronze. I hoped that by
using other colour the shine of the LM would show up for the camera. The
first photo shows the result without the shine showing.
The second photo show the same work angled
towards the light to show up the Liquid Metal that had been added.
I think the two photographs will give you an idea of the possibilities.
One always needs to experiment when trying
new products - the Liquid Metals mix well with the Classical Transparent
and the Permanent Pigmented Inks, this gave interesting results as to
the colours that could be obtained. Using these inks gave subtle changes
to the ‘undertone’ of the metals and again opened up more possibilities.
I used Blackened Bronze as the base colour and added Violet Agate,
Amazonite Green and Red Orange to see what could be produced. The photo
below gives an indication to the changes t in colour that can be
obtained, although I have to say seeing the results in actuality is far
superior to what can be show on a web site!
I’m sure they will find many uses and be put
to many different applications for painters, illustrators, framers,
decorators, calligraphers and others I’ve not mentioned, they open up a
multitude of possibilities.
I tested the Liquid Metals by damping them with water and by really
‘wetting’ them, they stayed where they had been put and there was no
bleeding, rubbing off or spoiling of the painted area. They adhered to
all the surfaces I applied them to and all were washed and wetted, they
stayed on the surface in all cases.
•These Liquid Metals can be used on many
surfaces, canvas, wood,
metal, leather, plastic, plaster wet or dry, paper, cardboard, velum, parchment,
terra cotta, picture frames and glass.
•They are permanent when dry and can
therefore be used outside.
•The surface finish is whatever you wish it
to be, by that I mean you can
retain the brush strokes or have it as smooth as silk,
it goes on easy and has good covering power.
•You will obviously obtain different effects
depending on the surface
and the application.
•They do not tarnish; therefore they do not
need to be varnished to retain
their colour and shine.
•They can be used to treat/colour picture
frames, canvas edges and to decorate
ready made articles.
On a glass or plastic surface you could get them off by scraping with a
sharp knife, other than that they we very stable.
Jacqui© 2008