A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #8: December '07 - Cont'd
Reggie Farmer: Modern Day Coppersmith
Coppersmith Reggie Farmer creates his hand-
hammered copper bowls on tree stumps.
Photograph by Paul David
“I’ve been a metal fabricator and welder for twenty years, and have a degree in metal fabrication technology from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, in Lancaster,” he reveals. “I purchase my copper from Copper and Brass Sales in Collingdale, PA, and buy it in 3' by 8' sheets. I’m now working on a 22-inch diameter bowl and it’s probably going to be six-to-eight inches deep with an adornment of concentric circles on the surface sides, which gives it rigidity. I try to incorporate different methods and techniques, and sometimes use stainless or aluminum, but I’ve found that copper works best and is the most fun to use.”
Farmer begins by bossing 16-gauge copper sheets into hand-hammered bowls on tree stumps. The surface of the metal is left as raw copper or prepared with a buffed mirror, satin brushed or hammer-toned finish. Through extensive research and experimentation, he has developed patination techniques with various chemicals to produce exotic combinations of colors, patterns, textures and finishes. Finally, the piece is sealed with acrylic lacquer to protect it.
“I’ll soon be starting a commissioned piece for a swimming pool in Nantucket that will be a water feature sitting on the edge of the pool,” he explains. “This is also a 22-inch diameter bowl, but this one will be heavy, as I’ll use 14-gauge copper. Copper is a molecular structure and corrodes easily, so I’ll put a powder coat on it so it doesn’t tarnish and will remain a nice copper color.”
According to Farmer, the powder coating is a process where powdered polymers are applied electrostatically to the piece, heated in a special oven, which melts the plastic and creates a smooth coat. He used to build racecars and used this special powdered polymer on his 1956 Chevy to protect it, instead of paint. The powdered coating goes within a couple millionths-of-an-inch and bonds perfectly, whereas painting would involve many solvents and primer. All of his work is hand hammered copper ware and most are created from 16-gauge sheet metal.
Copper spoons hand shaped by artist Reggie Farmer
Photograph by Paul David
Farmer and his wife, Beth, travel around to different arts and crafts shows. Together including the PA Guild of Craftsman, the Hagely Museum, the Kutztown Folk Festival, which usually draws approximately 135,000 people, and the Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square, PA, which draws a quarter of a million people.
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without her,” he adds. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world because I’m able to make a living doing what I love."
Resources:
Video of Reggie Farmer fabricating a copper bowl
Reggie Farmer can be reached at (610) 413-0735, or by email.
Weathervanes of Maine Continues the Colonial Craft of Copper Weathervanes
Copper Weathervanes by Weathervanes of Maine
Photograph by Greg Zachmann
Now, 30 years later, Weathervanes of Maine maintains four stores in New England - in the towns of Freeport and Wells in Maine, in the town of Conway in New Hampshire, and at their headquarters in Searsport, Maine. Paul and Bill design all of their products, and they maintain a staff to help them complete the work. Copper has been the material of choice for weathervanes since Colonial times, and the brothers continue this tradition.
“It’s excellent for weathervanes because it’s hollow and lightweight, but durable and weather-resistant, says Paul McElvain.
Of course, the construction is also an important component. Mass-produced weathervanes are not built to last through many years of storms, but Weathervanes of Maine uses only the highest quality copper and takes great care not only in the soldering work, but in the design itself. The center turning point of the weathervane must be taken into account to make sure it points directly where the wind is coming from, while also withstanding season after season of strong winds. For example, horses are one of the most popular weathervane designs.
“More than 70 percent of the body of the horse is going to be behind the center turning point and 30 percent in the front,” Paul says. “When the wind comes at it, it’s going to take the biggest part first and take that into the wind…The better [the weathervanes] go into the wind, the more they’ll be able to take a strong wind.”
The McElvains use several different kinds of copper. Animal designs are generally formed by hand using a steel cast mold, and the more malleable soft roll copper is pounded into the molds with a hammer. For more angular designs, such as airplanes and ships, a rigid sheet copper is used without a mold—these are cut and shaped rather than pounded.
The company maintains a large catalog of designs that run the gamut from a flying pig to an angel. The traditional rooster designs are still their biggest sellers, but the McElvains also make custom creations.
“There’s nothing you can’t get if you have enough money,” Paul says with a chuckle.
Copper weathervane close up
Photograph by Greg Zachmann
The company also makes copper-roofed cupolas, birdhouses and bird feeders, as well as copper wall art. While the custom designs must sometimes, by necessity, be expensive, Paul is quick to note that their regular line is often very affordable. The company’s weathervanes are also sold by Good Directions and Cape Cod Weathervane Company.
Weathervanes of Maine’s attention to detail can easily be seen in the copper feathers of an eagle’s wing or the keen likeness of a specific model of airplane. This fine craftsmanship is what has kept the company in business and growing since the 1970’s.
Copper in the Arts: EVENTS
- Palm Beach Jewelry, Art, and Antique Show
Feb 15, '13 - Feb 18, '13 - Native Expressions: Dave McGary’s Bronze Realism
Mar 7, '13 - Jun 30, '13 - Evolving Character Head Demonstration with John Coleman
Mar 9, '13 - Mar 9, '13 - More Upcoming Events...
Copper in the Arts: HISTORY
The Changing Nature of Verdigris
Sandro Botticelli, The Mystical Nativity, circa 1500
Photograph courtesy of Karen Mortensen
Painters valued verdigris for its rare, luminescent green color, but using it posed challenges.
“A green copper pigment like verdigris is notorious for behaving in ways that are inconsistent and not fully understood,” explains Arthur DiFuria of Moore College of Art & Design. DiFuria is Assistant Professor and Visiting Scholar in Art History and Curatorial Studies, and specializes in Northern Renaissance art. “What we look at now isn’t necessarily always what it [a painting] looked like when it was done, or what the artist intended.”
The fact that verdigris is an exceptionally changeable pigment is its most fascinating aspect. All pigments change somewhat over time, but verdigris can have wide mood swings. While it is generally thought to be lightfast in oil paintings, it has very little light or air resistance in other media. In an effort to protect the color, painters would sometimes apply verdigris along with layers of varnish.
Not only was verdigris an unstable pigment, but different workshops most likely mixed it in different ways, according to DiFuria. These differences could affect the way the pigment changed over time. For example, DiFuria explained that much of the verdigris Botticelli used turned brown with time, with the browning being due to the mixing process. While the paintings looked as Botticelli intended at the time, they went through a chemical process over the years that he could not anticipate.
Despite its drawbacks, verdigris was intensely popular among painters for hundreds of years, from Europe to Egypt to China—and most likely, a number of other places. It fell out of favor only because green pigments that were more stable became available and because verdigris was poisonous. The only thing that prevented people from using it during the Renaissance was the price—verdigris was expensive. DiFuria explained that the use of verdigris is associated with the Renaissance because the arts in general took off at that time. People with power hired painters from the best workshops and provided them with the finest materials. Of course Botticelli used verdigris; the expensive material was made fully available to him. Artists of lesser means might have had to choose something less expensive.
DiFuria added that Florence, Vienna, and Venice were cities well known for Renaissance art. The Bellini workshop in particular, including Jacopo, Gentile, and Giovanni, “did astonishing things with the color green,” according to DiFuria, who added, “I’d be shocked if it wasn’t verdigris.”
This raises another intriguing aspect of the historic use of pigments. Many times it’s impossible to know what pigment was used in a painting without laboratory analysis. Yet many thousands of paintings remain unanalyzed. Take The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, for example. The glowing green in this masterpiece is most likely verdigris, but DiFuria himself is not sure. On the other hand, Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity does use verdigris as its source of green, although the color has browned slightly over the years.
More research needs to be done to identify paintings that use the pigment. And hopefully over time, researchers will develop a better understanding of exactly how and why the shades of green differed in various workshops’ pieces. For now, verdigris carries with it a certain mysterious uncertainty, refusing to be pegged down. Perhaps that’s not a bad thing with art.
Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Metropolitan Museum Offers Rare Viewing of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, Magnificent Renaissance Masterpiece - December 15, 2007
The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents a rare viewing of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, adored by generations of artists, including Michelangelo, who is reputed to have given them the name, through January 13. After more than 25 years of conservation, seven elements of this masterpiece, including three of the narrative reliefs for which they are famous, are in the United States for the first and only time since their creation more than 500 years ago.
Adam and Eve Relief from Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates
of Paradise, 1425 to 1452, from the east portal of the
Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence
Photograph by Antonio Quattrone
Trained primarily as a goldsmith, Ghiberti was in his early 20s when he entered the 1401 competition to design the bronze doors for the Baptistery's northern portal. He won the commission over his closest competitor, Filippo Brunelleschi, and labored on the project for more than 20 years. In 1425, shortly after completing the north doors, Ghiberti received another commission, by invitation, this time, to design a new set of doors for another portal. These vast projects necessitated the formation of a large workshop, and among the artists who worked with him were such luminaries as Donatello (a sculptor in his own right, and another major innovator in Renaissance art) and the painter Paolo Uccello. When Ghiberti's second set of doors was completed, they demonstrated his genius so amply that it was immediately decided to install them on the east portal, the place of honor, because it faces the Cathedral.
Ghiberti’s ten brilliantly visualized scenes from the Old Testament include 24 heads and 24 statuettes of Biblical heroes, heroines, prophets, and sibyls, all enclosed within a lush frieze of the flora and fauna of Tuscany. The narrative panels selected for the exhibition tell the stories of Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau, and David and Goliath.
The figures are set within a series of arches that lead the eye compellingly through architectural space. Linear perspective was a key pursuit of the Early Renaissance, and Ghiberti was a leading pioneer. The David panel shows a battle taking place in a valley at the foot of steep mountains. Saul stands on a pedestal, urging his troops forward to rout the Philistines, while the boy David, Saul's protégé, rival, and eventual successor as king, beheads Goliath in the foreground. The troops are a resplendent panoply of ancient armor. In the distance, David celebrates his triumph by parading the head uphill toward Jerusalem. Each of these complex narratives is contained on a panel measuring about 31-1/2 inches square.
In addition, two standing prophets and two idealized heads in high relief from the doors' frame will be displayed. After 500 years of exposure to the elements, including damage from the devastating flood of 1966, the pairings will illustrate the condition of the doors before and after cleaning. The metal had blackened over the centuries, and restoration has revealed the original fire-gilt surfaces in all their glory.
After the conclusion of their four-city United States tour, the works return to Florence, to be reassembled in their original bronze framework and placed in a specially designed, hermetically sealed case in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, never to travel again.
Resources:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave., New York, New York, (212) 535-7710
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