On Patina

Patina is what happens to a material when it is allowed to respond honestly to its environment. It is not deterioration. It is the record of contact — of hands, air, light, and time.

Most production treats patina as a problem to be sealed against. Lacquers, powder coatings, and clear anodising exist to prevent the material from changing. They freeze it at the point of sale.

At VERTES, we work with materials that are meant to change. Copper oxidises. Leather stiffens, then softens, then moulds to the body that wears it. Walnut darkens and develops a quiet lustre. These are not defects — they are the material doing what it is supposed to do.

The practical consequence is that a VERTES object at the point of delivery is not the finished thing. It is the beginning of the thing. The owner completes it.

This is a different relationship to objects than most people have. It requires some tolerance for uncertainty — for not knowing exactly what the surface will look like in five years. But it also means that no two objects finish the same way. The patina is biographical.

We finish all copper work with a light oxidisation and then leave it. We condition leather with beeswax, not film-forming products. We oil wood with raw linseed, which polymerises into the grain rather than sitting on top of it. The material is still present. It can still breathe.

This is how objects age with dignity.