Crow, Sesame and Char
When metals are alloyed, various properties are produced, including a myriad of colours. Just in the range of gold, the colours yellow, white, pink, green, purple and blue can be achieved in varying shades, depending on the alloyed metal and their karats. I was fascinated when I learned about this on the first day of my class, and decided to return to the basic technique of alloying to further explore the relationships between the combinations of metals and the resulting colours for the first project of my final year.
I became particularly interested in shakudo, a copper-gold alloy traditionally used by the Japanese to make decorative sword guards and hilts. When treated in chemicals, shakudo becomes a dark black colour with a slight blue hue, and a range of shakudo containing higher percentages of gold known as murasaki gane turns into a similar dark colour but with a distinctive purple hue. The Japanese refer to the colour of patinated shakudo with 5% gold as ‘karasu-no-nureba-iro’, which translates to the ‘colour of the wet wing of a crow’.
The three rings of Crow, Sesame and Char each contain varying percentages of gold and copper, and are chemically treated to further bring out their characteristics in colour. Individually, the three rings are all black; but when placed side by side and seen closely in light, you may notice the subtle differences in their hues of black.
Crow, Sesame and Char
2013
shakudo