A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #44: December '10 - Cont'd
Willi Singleton: Leading the Slow Clay Movement
Willi at work in his studio.
Photograph courtesy of Willi Singleton
He uses several antique tools and processes, including a manual kick-wheel to form the pots and an organic wood ash glaze for his finishes. The resulting aesthetic makes every one of his pots a reflection of his home and of the human and natural energy that transforms raw matter into sophisticated earthenware.
Singleton uses a very simple recipe for his glazes, then adds “spices” of copper carbonate, iron or other material for color. Using wood, bamboo and other ashes from abundant materials harvested in his valley, he creates his basic glaze recipe with a little bit of silica. Because the wood-fired kiln can create a number of results from the amount of heat and amount of oxygen, a copper glaze, for example, can appear on a spectrum of gray to green.
Every ingredient in Singleton’s ceramics process originates as closely as possible from his home in Hawk Mountain. He digs clay himself from the foot of a local stream, harvests fallen wood to fire his handmade earthen kiln, invites friends and locals two times a year to help him stoke the kiln fires, and processes the wood ashes into natural glazes.
Singleton’s studio is based near a privately run bird sanctuary in southeastern Pennsylvania, named Hawk Mountain. It was here that his parents bought a self- sustaining farm in the 1940s that was transformed into his home and workshop, affording him access to 15 fertile acres between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.
As an apprentice in Japan in the 80s, he studied under Tappo Narui. A third generation master, Narui not only taught Singleton new pottery forms and inherited techniques, but also a way of life married to a philosophy of pleasure and purpose. Singleton reflects, “Narui would say, ‘Take it easy and enjoy what you are doing. Treat people well.’ It’s not just about making pottery and becoming a successful artist, you should live your life well, with meaning.”
Willi with his daughter Samantha.
Photograph courtesy of Willi Singleton
Singleton goes on to say that commercial clays are similarly homogenized, eventually pulverized to resemble flour, then reconstituted. In this way, potters can buy different kinds of clay that perform as they expect them to.
But Singleton prefers to keep contact with the origin of his natural materials, and over many years of experimentation has learned how to work with his clay. He discovered the clay on his land as a happy accident, and became determined to work with it despite its lack of plasticity. “I found it very difficult to work with. It didn’t stretch at all and it was very grainy. It’s kind of like someone who’s been raised on puffy white Wonderbread suddenly having a full whole grain loaf.” Eventually he landed upon a 50-50 marriage of his backyard clay with a non-refractory clay 75 miles away in Maryland, and this has been his clay mixture ever since.
Despite all the work he dedicates to remaining a local potter, he says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I like having my hands in mud, throwing my feet on the kickwheel,” he says. “It’s a very elemental process.”
Courtney Fischer Jewelry: Expressions of Color and Texture
Painted copper filigree on a copper chain.
Photograph courtesy of Courtney Fischer
She received a BA in Art History at Indiana University in Bloomington, she continues to take classes at Bloomfield Birmingham Art Center and has been making jewelry for the last eight years. Over time, she has perfected her patina process, and loves the creative control and freedom working with copper provides.
"Copper is my favorite material to work with,” says Fischer. “It can be manipulated in so many ways and transforms organically. Nature is a strong inspiration in my work and copper has a natural element so it is a perfect match. Hammers, torches and patinas are my go-to tools. I incorporate sawdust and brush on patinas to achieve a multitude of texture and colors. The beauty of copper is you never get the same thing twice.”
To create her hand-forged copper circles in her Lily Pad Earrings, she hammers the texture from the inside out to give the appearance of a lily pad or leaf. Then, she oxidizes the copper to antique the metal and make the color and texture stand out, using jump rings and copper ear wires as connectors.
To create her elegant copper triangle earrings, she folds and hammers 26-gauge copper at different angles to form texture and lines on the surface.
“My torch creates a heat patina of browns, blues, oranges and reds," she says. "It creates a beautiful color that is sealed with a layer of lacquer.
Fischer has also developed a special metal painting technique. When she purchases large copper filigrees that contain intricate detail, she oxidizes and applies acrylic paint. She can use any color to customize to specifications. She then brushes the pieces so that the copper surface shines through in a few places, giving a vintage appearance. Slightly bending the bracelets to create a round cuff, she adds a matching antiqued copper chain clasp.
Vivid earrings, made of heat-treated copper.
Photograph courtesy of Courtney Fischer
Three copper chains, all 1/4" thick, dangle from an antiqued copper chain on her Locket Necklace. She applies solution to age and color the metal on the surface of a working brass locket in layers until she gets the desired patina which she then seals.
After hand cutting, filing and drilling copper, Fischer might hand stamp the word MIDWEST, MICHIGAN or any state/region a customer requests on the metal surface. When she layers the patina, she can add black to make the letters stand out before lacquering.
Fischer encourages budding artists to take part in the thriving indie craft market to help get the word out about their work. She herself recently exhibited at the renown Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago and the Do It Yourself Street Fair in Ferndale. She also demonstrates the basics of working with metal at Blue House Ann Arbor, a community arts and crafts space.
"Participating in shows is a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the community and meet people who have an appreciation for arts and crafts," says Fischer.
Resources:
Courtney Fischer Jewelry, Royal Oak, MI, (248) 808-7434
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Debby & Joel Arem: Three Ring Circuits
Circuit board keychain on round brass disk.
Photograph courtesy of Debby Arem
Just as a gemstone has many facets, so are the woven inner workings of the couple’s story of development of Three Ring Circuits since 1991. Joel, who has a B.A. and master’s degree in geology from Harvard and a Ph.D. in mineralogy, always had a thing for cutting gems, which evolved into an involved interest in metalwork, casting and soldering. In 1979, he married Debby, who received a B.A. in fine arts from American University and, says Joel, is a “genius with color and pattern.”
Her artistic specialization began as silk screening, but grew into beaded necklace design, which allowed Debby the chance to combine colors, textures and antique Chinese pieces she unearthed on her travels. The Beadles line of jewelry (featured in Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue) was born in the early 1980s.
After another business venture took Joel into PC production and sales, another door opened. When the PC business folded, Debby discovered just how geometrically artistic the PCB (printed circuit board) components inside a computer could be, and the idea for Three Ring Circuits was born.
These intricate circuit boards are composed of extremely strong fiberglass that’s lightweight and paper thin, connected through copper.
“A vapor process then deposits the copper onto the board, so it’s a layer of fiberglass with a copper circuit on top and bottom, then another layer up to 12 layers or as many as 30 layers,” says Joel. “Fiberglass and layers are then welded together with pressure and heat and the result is the printed circuit board, which could still be only 1/8 inch thick.”
Reclaimed copper and circuit board snail pin.Photograph courtesy of Debby Arem
Joel says the couple began with designing earrings, using special tools to cut through the indestructible material, soldering metal hardware onto the fiberglass, sometimes shading the fiberglass with different colors. He then began discovering other items to make with the transparent material laden with cool copper circuitry, like pencil boxes, rulers, coasters, candle holders and clipboards. Joel even stripped the inner layer and laminated it, which resulted in bookmarks.
“The film, which is thicker than photo film with incredible circuitry, I cut up and make sun catchers,” he says. “Nothing goes to waste.”
The Maryland couple, who are also big into animal rescue, doesn’t waste any precious time either, creating new products nearly 12 hours a day. “Debby always says that she has never been more fulfilled creatively, and it’s an artistic outlet for me,” says Joe. “When I sell a pencil box, I know that I made that.”
Resources:
Three Ring Circuits, Joel and Debby Arem, Gaithersburg, MD
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Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Art Institute of Chicago Announces Major Acquisition of an Early 17th Century Copper Painting - December 07, 2010
The Vision of Saint Francis, circa 1602.
Photograph Courtesy of the Art Institute
of Chicago
"We are thrilled to add this singular example of 17th-century Bolognese painting to our permanent collection," said Douglas Druick, Searle Chair of the Department of Medieval through Modern European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. "Already at the Art Institute we are fortunate to possess many important works of Carracci's contemporaries--from Guido Reni's Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, to Guercino's Entombment, to Albani's Virgin and Child Adored by Saint Francis. This stunning copper by Ludovico reveals the naturalistic underpinnings of 17th-century Bolognese painting, thereby complementing and greatly enhancing our collection of early modern Italian art."
Ludovico Carracci was born in Bologna in 1555 and received his early training in the Mannerist tradition. At age 22, he was admitted as a master painter in Bologna's Corporazioni dei Pittori and traveled extensively throughout Italy to study the art produced in other cities. Upon his return, Ludovico and his cousins founded an academy of drawing (Accademia degli Incamminati), where the Carracci family executed drawings from live models and Ludovico served as the director. The Carracci family was largely responsible for transforming Bolognese painting from the staid and restricted Mannerist style of the latter part of the 16th century into the compelling blend of classicism inflected with naturalistic elements that would dominate 17th-century Italian painting. Thus the Carracci--with Ludovico, the eldest, at the helm--represent a revolutionary current in the history of art.
The Vision of Saint Francis is an exquisitely rendered oil on copper painting depicting a subject that was not represented in Italian painting until the last quarter of the 16th century. The scene comes from the medieval chronicles of Saint Francis and is divided into two parts: the heavenly realm, inhabited by the Virgin and putti who reside on and around substantive cloud formations, and the earthly sphere, composed of the kneeling Saint Francis and the Christ child in a carefully articulated naturalistic setting with a wide winged angel who emerges from the background of the terrestrial realm. The copper canvas allows light to pervade the picture in three beautifully realized modes: celestial light infuses the heavens with a warm glow; the moon sheds light on the nocturnal scene of Saint Francis; and the figures of Saint Francis, the Virgin, and the Christ child in turn radiate their own sacred light in the form of haloes.
Resources:
The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, (312) 443-3600
