A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #23: March '09 - Cont'd
Copper Moon Woodworks: Shedding New Light on Windowshutters
Issaquah window shutter with copper medallion.
Courtesy of Copper Moon Woodworks
This family owned business was founded by Lori Wnek and her late husband, Ken, in 2003, when they decided to blend their creativity by placing copper accents on exterior shutters.
“We call our shutters ‘art for the exterior of your home’”, says Lori, who started by creating designs with band saw machines and stamping equipment. “I purchase my copper [locally] from the Lehigh Valley. During this time of year many shutters are shipped to our clients on the West Coast and warmer climates because the weather is more conducive for outside work. We work with our customers one-on-one through our website and by phone to learn their ideas of the type of copper accent they desire. Our Sedona shutter, designed after returning from Sedona and being inspired by the art community, is one of our most popular shutters because of the copper design element. It blends nicely with most home styles and, as time goes by, the patina’s richness blends with other features like copper gutters, downspouts, and front door accents.”
By working one-on-one with customers, Copper Moon Woodworks is able to design pieces that incorporate their customer’s ideas. According to Lori, they offer a service that addresses clients who have difficulty imagining how various styles will compliment their home. If a customer emails them a digital photo of their home, and indicate which style of shutter as well as the color of the stain or paint they’d like to see on the windows, it can be applied graphically. This added service (no charge) provides clients with confidence in their style and color selections.
“With our Issaquah Shutters we ship the copper medallion separately so it can be attached after the paint or stain is applied,” she explains. “People usually create their own finishes. The copper patinas over time therefore I always inform the customer that the medallion needs a clear coat of polyurethane. Another shutter is our Avalon, which includes a copper, bronze or brass “X” accent to place in the center of the shutter. My late husband, an engineer, drew them. He felt they needed to be different, have character and compliment most home designs. Our shutters are different than the two standard shutter styles that people see 99.9% of the time. The most common shutter styles are raised panel and louvered, but our shutters are tailored to the home with copper accents.”
The Peapack Customer window shutter also offers a louvered shutter appearance and keeps the strength of a solid panel. Customers can choose from a bold or narrower centerboard, just as they can choose other models.
“After my husband passed on I searched for a fine woodworker as I needed someone with special talent to craft these twelve shutter designs,” says Lori. “Luckily, I found an exceptional craftsman, John Angelino, whose work is incredible.
Resources:
Copper Moon Woodworks, 528 N. 26th St., Allentown, PA (610) 434-8740
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Andy Brinkley: Fusing Nature into Metal
Andy Brinkley in his studio.
Courtesy Andy Brinkley Studio
“I enjoy nature and the hikes and the birds and all of the things that go with it,” Brinkley says. Naturally, cattails, fish, frogs, birds, and trees are found in his work, which is a mix of the delicate and the fanciful.
Brinkley began his exploration of metal, not in an art school studio, but under the tutelage of two old-time, North Carolina mountain blacksmiths.
“I really, really loved watching them work and seeing what they could do three-dimensionally with just a bar of iron or steel,” Brinkley recalls. “I bought a forge and began working at it. To me, though, something was missing-- the color and texture of non-ferrous metals. So, I began to incorporate a lot of that into some of the simpler sculptural blacksmithing I was doing.” His new love of softer metals drew him completely away from iron and the forge.
Copper was his first metal of choice because of the patina nature brought to the metal. But when heat was applied, a whole new world of possibilities opened up.
“All of those red colors!” Brinkley exclaims. This drew him to copper alloys, which afforded a wider range of color. “I'll use brass and bronze for color accents that I need in a particular piece,” he says, and ones that he can't get from copper alone. “Different kinds of metals are used in combination for different colors and textures.” These he joins with silver solder and phosphorous copper solder.
At first, Brinkley bought sheet copper directly from the copper mills in Buffalo, NY, but that changed about a decade ago, and he's had to buy from local copper distributors who sell to roofers and heating/air conditioning contractors. The bar stock that he uses comes from a national company, which is the source for it now, and his tube copper comes directly from his local plumbing supply dealer.
Frog playing saxophone Garden sculpture.
Courtesy Andy Brinkley Studio
“Fifteen years ago, I designed a line of bird houses and bird feeders for some of the wild bird centers all over the country,” Brinkley recalls. He created a sculpture of a standing frog using a pair of binoculars so that the New York center could guide visitors to their binocular department. “I had such a huge reaction to that that I began doing other frogs.” He has since created a whole line of garden art that includes frogs fishing, gardening, or playing musical instruments. Though he doesn't make bird feeders and birdhouses any more, many of the wild bird centers still sell his bird watcher frogs, and orders keep coming in.
Brinkley's frog sculptures don't impress everyone, however. He once brought one into a sculpture seminar he was taking. “The instructor's only remark was: 'There's nothing funny about art,'” Brinkley recalls. “I knew right then that I was at the wrong place! There's something funny about almost everything.” Brinkley's sense of humor and love of life infuses his art. Even his wall sculptures of trees whose delicate leaves seem able to flutter in a southern breeze are imbued with a joy that comes from deep within the artist and shows his keen observational sense.
Not lacking admirers, Brinkley's work has been displayed in galleries in the region, as well as in New York, California, and Florida, and adorns corporate offices, doctor's waiting rooms, hospitals, clinics, large retirement centers, and residential homes. Custom orders also make up a large part of Brinkley's artistic sales.
Brinkley is assisted by Ken Edgar and Mark D. Shrum, two skilled craftsmen, who keep the production work going at the busy Andy Brinkley Studio, while Brinkley works on custom pieces and creates new originals. Brinkley's wife runs the Jacob Fork Gallery, Brinkley's showroom and gallery for the work of about 200 different artists. Still, Brinkley manages to take a hike into the nearby hills, looking for new ideas to bring to his work.
Resources:
Andy Brinkley Studio, 5810 Walnut Grove Lane, Hickory, NC, (704) 462-1137
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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
Making Cents: The First Designs and Future of the Copper Cent
The wreath cent (right) was created after criticism of the original Liberty chain cent (left).
Photograph submitted by Rebecca Troutman
The 1793 Chain Cent is not the only coin to have endured controversy in the U.S. Mint’s history, but it was the first. The fledgling U.S. Mint hired coiner Henry Voigt to produce its first design. The men of this time period who worked with the dyes and design of the coins were craftsmen who had likely apprenticed as artisans or silver smiths. They were not known as “designers” as we imagine them today; the process of creating coins was extremely physical and demanding. Coiners manually heated metal sheets in a furnace and flattened them with repeated trips through rollers. They then harnessed horses to power the crude machinery through which coin shapes were fed by hand and pressed.
The Chain Cent was controversial for two reasons: Lady Liberty’s wild appearance and the use of chains to signify the free republic’s founding colonies. On the coin’s face was the profile of Lady Liberty’s with free-flowing, long hair. It was inspired by French medalist Augustin Dupre’s Libertas Americana medal, which was struck by the Paris Mint in 1783 to celebrate the American Revolution. The long, tousled hair was meant to celebrate freedom, but to most citizens, Lady Liberty simply looked uncivilized. One writer of the Pennsylvania Gazette reported in March of 1793 that “Liberty…appears to be in a fright.”
Mint Director David Rittenhouse went to work immediately on new sketches, working alongside designer and engraver Adam Eckfeldt, for the Wreath Cent—which was circulated less than four months after the Chain Cent. The new Liberty’s longer hair was still blowing wildly, but her head looks slightly upward above the horizon in a stance of pride and confidence. The offensive chains on the reverse were replaced by a wreath of a plant with berries, resembling laurel.
Rittenhouse then hired Joseph Wright to design yet another version of the copper coin in the U.S. Mint’s troubled first year. Known as the Liberty Cap cents, Wright finally tamed wild Liberty’s flowing hair and added a liberty cap, an ancient symbol of freedom, to her image. Satisfied they had reached a design that suited the new republic, versions of this coin remained in production until 1857.
So what will the future of the one-cent coin bring? Historians, greeting the question like a medical doctor delivering a poor prognosis, don’t give the penny much longer to live. From a purely economic standpoint, says Douglas A. Mudd, Money Museum Curator for the American Numismatic Association (ANA), the penny is, ironically, unaffordable for the Mint to maintain: “What puts the nail on the coffin for many treasuries [around the world] is the fact that the lowest denomination’s metallic content is actually more valuable than the denomination itself.” Over time, the U.S. Mint has changed the composition of the cent coin so that it’s not too expensive to produce—currently a copper-coated zinc. “The problem is,” says Mudd, “eventually the values of the metals will catch up to that."
Resources:
U.S. Mint, 5th and Arch Sts., Philadelphia, PA
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Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Cantor Expands Rodin Galleries - March 01, 2009
Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell (detail) The Three Shades, 1880–c. 1900. Bronze, cast 1981, no. 5
In addition to approximately 200 works in three galleries dedicated to his work, including the monumental sculpture The Thinker, the Stanford campus boasts 20 major works in the Rodin Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the Center, plus the Burghers of Calais nearby on campus. This is the world's largest collection of Rodin's bronzes outside Paris. Admission is free to the museum, its 24 galleries, and sculpture garden.
“This collection is almost entirely a product of the extraordinary generosity of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor and their foundation. Its contents reflect the guidance of the late Stanford professor Albert Elsen, who was the foremost Rodin scholar of his generation. With this new installation, we are striving to fulfill the aspirations of these collaborators, who sought to create an effective teaching collection for the benefit of the Stanford community and all our visitors,” said Bernard Barryte, curator of European art and manager of publications. “To achieve this, we've organized the display to highlight Rodin's working process and greatest accomplishments.”
The installation clusters works associated with specific projects, such as The Gates of Hell, so visitors can see the sculptor's struggles to give shape to his ideas and how he reused and adapted compositional ideas in successive projects. Rodin explored various genres, including the portrait, and he pioneered the use of the partial figure, such as hands and feet, as independent vehicles for emotional expression. These works are grouped together as well. Works on paper will change, due to their sensitivity to light and the need to preserve them for future generations.
Resources:
Cantor Arts Center, 328 Lomita Dr., Stanford, CA
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