Patina Challenge
Saddle Brown: Equal parts beautiful and a neurotic persons worst nightmare.
Since the early days of Apple’s Saddle Brown accessories, I’ve always wanted to create a time-lapse of a pristine case develop a patina over time. The plan is to take a new photo of my iPhone SE in its case every 5-days to see how it weathers across time. I won’t be creating the patina with any oils or other processes beyond just regularly handling of my iPhone.
For me, this project is equal parts curiosity, cabin-fevered creativity, and attempting to overcome my obsessive need to keep every Apple-iThingy I own in pristine condition. I love seeing a well-weathered patina, but I’ve always hated that intermittent period when it just ends up looking like a gross & grimy phone case.
I’ll post regular updates on my twitter & update this post intermittently throughout the project.
Day 01
July 01: Case had just been taken out of the box and wrapped around the iPhone.
Day 05
July 06: Few scuffs formed from daily wear & tear along with some slight impressions on either side of the case after being secured in a gimbal over the weekend.
Day 10
July 11: Noticing little change over the last 5-days. I’ve been around the home a lot these past five days, so the SE remained either docked or moved from one surface to the next.
Day 15
July 16: A pandemic may have been the wrong time to begin this experiment. You can't exactly expect anything to weather when you don't expose it to such.
Day 20
July 21: I think my case has some sort of Benjamin Button disease, as it almost appears to be looking newer than it did in the early days of this process! Maybe a got a little darker as time has passed.
Day 25
July 26: The case is beginning to pick up more oil and show some discolouration near the bottom left and below the Apple logo of the case.
Day 30
July 31: Beginning to see a bit of a patina line form along the edges of the case - notably along the left side of the case.
Day 35
August 05: Continue to see a patina slowly develop in specific areas of the case.
Day 40
August 10: Patina is beginning to be most visible below the Apple logo, and along the middle band of the phone where it regularly rests in my palm.
