Prepping Metal

My metals arrived in the post today and therefore I have had a very productive day. I had a tutorial with my lead tutor this morning, and got approval for my line of enquiry which was a relief. I also got some helpful suggestions of venue choices etc. I then went to the workshop to cut the metal and drill holes in the side so that I could easily mount the samples in my sketchbook- it didn't take too long, and I'm sure that the practical advantages of this process will be worthwhile.

OTHER PROJECTS
I also had to take some time out today to dedicate to some side projects. Firstly, I had to lead a one-off sketchbook session with the second-years, having been asked by one of my tutors to pass on some advice and give some examples of how to use a sketchbook successfully. And secondly, I had to have a meeting about another little project that I've agreed to be involved in on the side, for no otehr reason than that I am passionate about the event. For the next few weeks I will have to take a little bit of time-out from Salome occasionally, in order to source the costumes for a theatre/cinema event on Valentines Day, where the film The Artist will be shown, alongside various performers dressed in 20s gear. I have a passion for the 20s, and a passion for the event, as I really enjoyed working on it last year when they showed 'A Brief Encounter', I was so happy to see it running again that I immediately jumped on board- although it is now much more work than I was initially anticipating, and I hope it doesn't get too much in the way of my current project.
So in the afternoon I had a meeting about The Artist project. More to come on that later I'm sure.

BACK TO THE METALS
Over the past few days since my last post, I have been thinking about ways to experiment with aging my metals. I found this amazing website which shows you formulas for how to get millions of different effects using different chemicals on different metals, but it all sounded rather dangerous and I had no idea of where to get most of the chemicals from:
http://www.sciencecompany.com/patina-formulas-for-brass-bronze-and-copper-W160.aspx#32
However, I did find quite a few 'DIY' solutions that suggested some variation of an Ammonia solution. I didn't think that Ammonia would be too difficult to get my hands on, given that it's a standard, perhaps slightly old fashioned, cleaning product. But after a lot of searching, I began to get a little suspcious as to why I couldn't find any ANYWHERE. Turns out, it's now widespread knowledge that one can easily make homemade bombs using ammonia..... so it's tricky to buy an appropriate quantity online and no supermarkets stock it anymore.
For the last few days I have been really trying my hardest to get advice from EVERYONE as to where to purchase ammonia but to no avail.
My idea for the metals is as follows:
cut each sample in half (done).
Allow one piece of metal out of each pair to age without any interference.
Make one piece of metal out of each pair age in a pattern.
What I thought I could do was chose some patterns from my moodboard, create a sort of threshold stencil out of them on Photoshop, print the stencils onto sticky-label printer paper, cut out the stencil, peel off the backing, and then stick the stencil to a metal sample. I am hoping that this will cause the metal to only age in the places that are exposed, although I'm a bit worried about the fact that the sticker stencils will be paper rather than vinyl, I'm hoping the ammonia won't seep through.