I've been buying more base metal beads lately, mostly brass, bronze and copper.

I have patina liquids ("JAX") to darken brass and copper, but they tend to overdarken and give a flat finish. And I have to sand some of the finish off to make it look like copper again.

I tried heating some with a microtorch, but got varied results.

I tried liver of suphur gel in water, but it made the metals black.

The most interesting results were soaking the beads in the JAX brass/copper darkener, then heating them to burn off some of the patina, then lightly sanding them between two fine sanding sponges.

But the next batches are a lotta little copper beads--small ovals, rounds from 2mm up to 4mm. I keep thinking, there's got to be an easier way to get an aged, worn look to new copper, preferably a matte finish.

Also, I probably need to wax or coat the ones I've already done, so they don't darken more.

I'm going to do an internet scrounge, but wondered if anyone here has quicker methods?

I'd post pictures but I jammed up my phone taking hi-res photos of new jewelry pieces. Have to wait til my tech guy (dear hubby) gets home from a conference....!