The Pudina Finish
The title itself makes me nostalgic.. and you are probably wondering “what in Hades is she talking about?”.
Right?
Well, let me take you back about 30 years or so… a client in the US requested a very specific brass patina with a greenish finish and my incredible inventive family decided to call this the ‘Pundina Project’ because according to them the aforementioned tint reassembled the colour of pudina chutney.
We are an extremely hands-on bunch. No delegating tasks whatsoever, excuse me? no way! So my father and cousin valiantly decided to spearhead the project pulling out all stops to create the perfect pundina tint!!
And before any of us knew it, a whole gunnysack full of brass items from the office landed at our doorstep and the two incumbents got down to conducting their experiments to produce the patina required.
It was hilarious to watch the two generations work together and beautifully struggle to create this specific shade. They used everything in their arsenal, all their theoretical knowledge and collective knowledge gained through experience and still, they failed. This, however, did not deter either of them! In fact, each failure egged them on motivating them to try just one more time.
The results of these failed attempts were no less interesting. Each time they had an elaborate explanation as to why this was not the correct pundina tint.
What annoyed me most was that they didn’t seem to be writing anything down! Hits or misses… well only misses thus far, but that’s immaterial. They documented nothing!! I just wondered if they would remember the concoction they used when they hit the jackpot!
Oh, how little faith I had. I should have known better. My hair didn’t turn grey under the sunlight - an Indian euphemism used to express that white hair represents the wisdom that has come through years of living, experiencing, and eventual learning. Well, they did crack it, there was no Eureka moment a là Archimedes…. but crack it they did.
The desired patina showed up in all its brilliance and was replicated with nary a hitch. In fact, now we famously use this Pundina finish with great success and it’s received well whenever it’s ordered.
The rest as they say is just history…