A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #34: February '10 - Cont'd
Kindred Spirit Designs: Creating Rainbows on Copper
Weather Vane Horse pin
Photograph courtesy of Dona L. Jones
“I remember when I was in junior high school, I made these little wire rings,” she says. As a child entrepreneur, she sold her creations to other kids. Today, Jones makes her living as a designer of copper pins, earrings, and ornaments and is a member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.
She creates a line of more than 100 designs depicting animal, celestial, oceanic, and natural forms, as well as peace signs. “I find that I have a wide variety of images, and there seem to be customers for almost everything,” she says.
While she studied metalsmithing in Allentown, Pennsylvania, she developed her own torching techniques in order to create varied colors on the surface of the copper.
“When my business was only a few years old,” she says, “I was working with mixed metals mostly – silver and brass, nickel silver and copper – and I was trying to get an effect on the metal. And I kept getting all this color.” At first, she saw the color as a mistake but eventually decided to go with it.
Mermaid, Handmade Torched Copper
Photograph courtesy of Dona L. Jones
Once she has settled on a particular design, she sends a prototype to Lancaster Metals in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they cut and etch the pieces using machines. The torching process is still all done by Jones by hand, which means that no two pieces are exactly the same.
Jones prefers not to work with semi-precious stones and more expensive metals. “People ask me why I work with copper when I could make more if I were working with a finer metal and gemstones,” she says. “I can’t picture myself there for one, and I really like being able to have contact with more people because my work is accessible.”
Jones takes pride in the fact that her handmade jewelry is affordable. “I believe art is for everybody and that everybody should be able to have a piece of artwork that is handmade and within their price range. So, I feel very good about my pins selling at $22, and people who want something completely handmade and unusual and different have access to that.”
Jones uses a great deal of recycled copper, which she collects from recycling centers, and she purchases sheet copper from Lancaster Metals. She has a special affinity for copper. “It’s a soft metal, so it can be hand-worked more,” she says. “And it has the ability to change its surface – texture, color. I also make patinas that I put the copper in, and depending on the mixture, I can get different results – a blue patina or a green patina.” Jones especially appreciates this variety that copper offers her compared to other metals. “Copper has so much personality and depth,” she says.
Resources:
Kindred Spirit Designs, Kempton, PA, (610) 987-0936
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Arizona Copper: Home of Copper Ken
Copper lamps by Arizona Copper
Photograph courtesy of Ken Venisnik
He had taken one art class in college and was adept at shop class in high school, but aside from that, he had no formal training. After college he worked at a brokerage firm by day and waited tables at night, unsure of his future. Things changed when a friend decided to open an art gallery in Carefree, Arizona using saguaro cactus to make lamps, sculptures and furniture. So Venisnik left the brokerage firm and worked alongside his friend. “He did a little work with copper,” he says, “like this one table with cactus legs and a copper top. That’s where my interest started. I realized copper was cool.”
They eventually opened a gallery in Sedona which Venisnik ran for three years. But like all dreams there comes a moment where you realize you need to strike out on your own.
But there was a problem. He’d never really worked with copper nor did he have any tools. He father bought 10 sheets of 30 x 10 copper to get Ken started and he used a few tools that belonged to his grandfather. He set up the Arizona Copper shop in his 950 square foot condo and started to work, starting with an original saguaro and copper top table. “That was literally the first thing I made with copper,” he says. Projects started coming in and he began experimenting, developing his own techniques for coloring metal.
“When you find the right elements that interact with copper, the position and structure of the electrons on the copper allow it to accept an oxide with other chemicals,” he says. “I just had a talent with coloring metal; no one had ever seen these kinds of colors before.
Copper sconces by Arizona copper
Photograph courtesy of Ken Venisnik
“It just took off and you couldn’t stop it,” he says of Arizona Copper's start. The tables were in demand and roughly 50 percent of his business at that time were copper table tops and half was custom work, including fountains, kitchen tops, and commercial applications.
Currently he sources copper from local suppliers like Industrial Metal Supply and Capital Metals, both in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. He then took the idea of the tables, sans legs, and started using the copper sheet an art form in itself, forgoing all the necessary work in building tables. The colors are varied and almost primal, deep hues with an earthen beauty and he is more of a colorist, an area he’s worked hard to define. He doesn’t use heat unless he needs to anneal something. “I don’t like the way you don’t have control over the heat,” he says. He works with 24 and 32 ounce sheet almost exclusively, but does use 12 ounce and foil for delicate work, due its malleability as the project warrants. Though copper is the main focus, he has also worked with stainless steel, brass, zinc and steel.
Commercial projects in Arizona have included custom work for Camelback Inn Golf Club, Copperwynd Resort, Embassy Suites, and a fountain at Tommy Bahama. Publications like Phoenix Home and Garden, Arizona Republic, and Arizona’s Valley Guide have featured his work.
“It’s at the point now where if you need something made out of copper, you call copper Ken,” he says gratefully. “That’s what everyone calls me. I guess my dream really has come true."
Resources:
Arizona Copper, Ken Venisnik, (480) 970-3730
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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
The Beautiful History of Capital Copper
Scroll pin made from the copper of the North Carolina State Capitol dome. 2" X 1 1/2"
Photograph courtesy of Stuart Nye
Though Stuart Nye Jewelry has a long history in North Carolina, it was their work with reclaimed copper from the state capital dome in Raleigh that put them on the map. “In March 1974, we got a phone call from a woman named Joy Jordan, who worked for the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh,” owner and Master craftsmen Ralph Mars recalls. “She said that they had taken the copper off the capital dome. Because its roof was leaking too bad, they had to replace it. They were hoping to find someone who would melt it down and cast medallions of some sort, and they hadn't had any luck with that and wondered if we could make jewelry out of it.”
Mars asked for a piece to work with. They sent several pounds of the copper and he went to work cleaning it. “It had been out in the weather for 130 years. It was very tarnished, and it looked like somebody had hit it with a hammer,” Mar says. “We had to acid soak it to clean it and were careful not to disturb the patina.”
When Mars sent a few finished pieces to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, they were dubbed Capital Copper and quickly grabbed up by customers. “We couldn't make it fast enough," recalls Mars. "We'd ship it on a Monday, and they'd have it sold out on a Wednesday.”
But the supply of copper was threatened early on. “Just after we had started making it, someone broke into the warehouse in Raleigh and stole the copper,” Mars remembers. But the copper was recovered, and there is still a small stack left for Mars and his craftsmen to work with.
Now, 35 years later, Capital Copper, which is sold exclusively at the North Carolina Museum of History, is still popular. The museum sells a number of North Carolina made products, including a lot of other jewelry by Stuart Nye Jewelry other than Capital Copper. “Stuart Nye is our number one jeweler in sales, and the Capital Copper, in one particular grouping, is the number one seller,” says Lynn Brower, Director of Retail Operations at the museum. “We sell a lot to people who want a special gift. Since we're located here in Raleigh where the state government is, many groups that are going overseas like to take the Capital Copper with them. It has special meaning. Selling anything that has a history or background to it, people buy. Of course with this, the people love the item itself, too.”
Capital Copper is made into pins, earrings, cuff links, lapel pins, rings, and tie tacks in dogwood (the state flower) and pine cone (the state tree) patterns. Most of the men's jewelry is made in the pine cone motif. The dogwood pattern, however, is the most popular.
Ralph Mars and his craftsmen at Stuart Nye Jewelry are indeed recycling copper, but they are creating some very unique, history-laden pieces.
Resources:
Stuart Nye Hand Wrought Jewelry, 940 Tunnel Road, Asheville NC, (828) 298-7988
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Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Spirit and Form: Michele Oka Doner at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park - February 11, 2010
Michele Oka Doner, 'Root System', 2002–2003.
Bronze, 69 x 116 x 77 inches
Photograph courtesy of Doner Studio
Spirit and Form showcases eight large scale relief prints of human forms from organic material; several functional items including serving pieces in bronze and sterling silver, and magnifiers; and Root System a 55 square foot candelabra made of roots cast in bronze. Central to the exhibition is a large installation of 1,500 Soul Catchers.
The source of Oka Doner’s governing passion emanates from the spiritual nature that forms around us. Drawing inspiration from objects found both on and within land and water, she renders raw materials into strange and secret forms. She considers herself as a hunter/gatherer, seeking the inventiveness of nature and repurposing it into a one-of-a-kind sculpture.
“Religion and spirituality exist all around us, binding humankind and nature together in dialogue; art and design becomes the language for our conversation,” said Oka Doner.
In her largest exhibition to date, Spirit and Form presents a rare opportunity to experience Oka Doner’s versatility and the breadth of her endeavors from recent figurative projects in bronze and on paper to decorative objects in bronze and silver. The exhibition shows nature as the underlying theme of her work, applied in a variety of usage, scale, materials and media.
“Oka Doner’s work suggests the interconnectedness of all things,” said Joseph Becherer, Chief Curator and Vice President. “With her openness to the spirit of nature, Oka Doner’s work presents a profoundly mystical dimension that is not accidental but rather a combination of her experiences in a variety of settings.”
Oka Doner’s work is represented in Meijer Garden’s permanent collection. Her work Colossus can be viewed within the 32-acre Sculpture Park and Gnomon is on display indoors. In 2008, the artist installed Beneath the Leafy Crown, a 13,607 foot floor sculpture consisting of more than 1,650 bronze leaf and botanical-inspired elements suspended in deep green terrazzo.
"Michele’s work has helped transform Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park aesthetically and philosophically,” said David Hooker, President and CEO of Meijer Gardens. “This exhibition is an undeniable tribute to her transformational powers as a creator and thinker.”
Resources:
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, 1000 E Beltline Avenue Northeast Grand Rapids, MI, (616) 957-1580
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