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01 Jewels/
Copper Challenge
“Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold…” – Rumi (Masnavi, 1258-73)
Story
In all honesty, I do not love copper! The reddish-brown orange colour and my skin tone are not an ideal match and it simply reminds me of pots and pans and 70s decor. But I like a challenge. I also happen to have quite a bit of salvaged copper, most of it from my grandfather’s old tool shed – leftover bits and pieces that he collected over a long lifetime.
So, every once in a while, I encourage myself to make a piece in copper that is beautiful anyway, inspired by the apt Dutch expression: ‘Mooi rood is niet lelijk’ (beautiful red is not ugly).
The Copper Challenge is a personal struggle and I truly hope that these pieces find owners one day for whom the colour of copper is better suited.
Form
As this series is strictly about the material copper, you will find a range of shapes from the various form-driven series, from fluid amoeba shapes to geometric oloids and everything in between.
Technique
A range of techniques, with off-the-grid tools – like a saw, file, and hammer for chasing and repoussé with punches to create hollow forms – and on-the-grid tools, like a torch for soldering and an electric rock tumbler for polishing and hardening.
Material
Salvaged and offcut scrap copper, sometimes integrating vintage glass beads in different shades of blue to green to mirror the various colours of copper oxidation (a chemical reaction with environmental elements like oxygen, water and carbon dioxide). Other times I have sought some degree of monochromaticity, by adding brownish factory leftover Perspex, vintage freshwater pearls and salvaged wood.
“…once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” – Margery Williams (The Velveteen Rabbit, 1922)
01 Jewels/
Copper Challenge
“Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold…” – Rumi (Masnavi, 1258-73)
Story
In all honesty, I do not love copper! The reddish-brown orange colour and my skin tone are not an ideal match and it simply reminds me of pots and pans and 70s decor. But I like a challenge. I also happen to have quite a bit of salvaged copper, most of it from my grandfather’s old tool shed – leftover bits and pieces that he collected over a long lifetime.
So, every once in a while, I encourage myself to make a piece in copper that is beautiful anyway, inspired by the apt Dutch expression: ‘Mooi rood is niet lelijk’ (beautiful red is not ugly).
The Copper Challenge is a personal struggle and I truly hope that these pieces find owners one day for whom the colour of copper is better suited.
Form
As this series is strictly about the material copper, you will find a range of shapes from the various form-driven series, from fluid amoeba shapes to geometric oloids and everything in between.
Technique
A range of techniques, with off-the-grid tools – like a saw, file, and hammer for chasing and repoussé with punches to create hollow forms – and on-the-grid tools, like a torch for soldering and an electric rock tumbler for polishing and hardening.
Material
Salvaged and offcut scrap copper, sometimes integrating vintage glass beads in different shades of blue to green to mirror the various colours of copper oxidation (a chemical reaction with environmental elements like oxygen, water and carbon dioxide). Other times I have sought some degree of monochromaticity, by adding brownish factory leftover Perspex, vintage freshwater pearls and salvaged wood.
“…once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” – Margery Williams (The Velveteen Rabbit, 1922)
01 Jewels/
