A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #39: July '10 - Cont'd
Susan Venable Studio: Ancient to Abstract Constructions
Silver Silence, Sue Venable
Courtesy of Sue Venable
"From my studies of Pre-Columbian and Peruvian art, I was familiar with copper as one of the earliest and strongest substances dating from ancient times. Attracted by both its real and symbolic strength, I also admired its representation of fire and light," Venable revealed.
While studying with an artist in Barcelona, Spain, Venable was introduced to copper as a weaving material. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from UCLA. At her studio in Santa Barbara, California, she currently uses her knowledge of the metal to make what she prefers to call "abstract constructions."
The process begins with 16-gauge open grids purchased from recyclers in 6' wide by 100' long pieces so creations can be custom woven to size. These back-layer grids are lashed to a tapestry loom and copper wire is attached at every one inch intersection. Leaving an inch of twisted copper wire between grids, Venable then "builds" the piece by adding grids (a minimum of three). She utilizes 19- or 20-gauge copper to form the primary structure and 27-gauge copper tied to the top surface to add luminosity.
"I use a lock wire pliers similar to the kind used by the aircraft industry. It enables me to twist the wire easily. The pliers clamp on to the wire. There is a shaft at the end so the entire tool spins and wraps as wire is pulled through one at a time. I use so many wires and each wire catches the light differently and highlights the copper's reflective quality. The copper feels like thousands of drawn lines and creates a rich, warm, intimate feeling," Venable describes.
Venable buys her copper in 10-pound spools, usually purchasing 500 to 600 pounds at a time from recyclers. She prefers to get the materials before they have gone to salvage.
Venable’s process of weaving is very time consuming and detailed. The more copper wire that is used, the thicker and more lush the results.
“For a privately commissioned ocean/sunset view abstract 4' x 13.5', I purchased copper wire that had been dyed sea green, teal and indigo from a distributor in New Jersey and wove it in with the natural wire,” Venable explains. “It took approximately 2 1/2 months to complete.”
Inspired by a 20-story building in New Mexico, Venable recently constructed a shimmering, slanted piece by increasing the length of copper wire between the grids. It will be on display from September 29 to October 27 during her show at California State University, Dominguez Hills Campus.
Venable has produced more than 600 works during her 25-year career. These range from 2' x 2' to 12' x 18'. Her public collections and commissions can be seen in Greece, Turkey, Australia, France, Japan, Singapore and throughout the United States.
Resources:
Susan Venable Studio, 2323 Foothill Lane, Santa Barbara, CA, (805) 884-4963
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Picture it Perfect: Kinetic Copper Sprinklers
Aquatic Atoms. Kinetic Copper Sculpture.
Photograph courtesy of Kinetic Copper Sprinklers
“My Dad sent me one of those copper sprinkler heads,” Jim Ziccarelli said. “And when I saw it, I thought, “Gee, this looks like something I could do.’ We started doing some designs, and twelve years later here we are.”
A skilled machinist for 21 years, Ziccarelli understood the properties of metals and how to work with them. He started Picture it Perfect, and began to craft pleasing geometric shapes with copper tubing and experimenting with different water patterns. The shapes Ziccarelli creates are graceful circles, S shapes, and spirals with names such as Celestial Moons, Serendipity, Aquatic Atoms, and Tilt-a-Whirl. Each piece of copper tubing is shaped by hand and welded onto a rigid copper base. Inside each basketball-sized sprinkler head is an iridescent stainless steel ball.
However, when they start to spin and optical illusion happens so that the circles inside appear to move like a gyroscope and the spirals seem to move like a corkscrew. All the while, the iridescent ball appears to float in the center.
But that isn’t all that happens, when attached to a water supply such as a garden hose, the sprinklers throw out an intricate water pattern that waters an area 10 feet to 30 feet in diameter. In order to create that pattern, Ziccarelli drills each hole by hand, determining the proper angle by experience, not by the use of a computer or other mechanical assistance.
Jim Ziccarelli working in his shop.
Photograph courtesy of Kinetic Copper Sprinklers
In addition to the copper sprinklers that stand 48 inches off the ground on a base with three threaded bolts which grab the soil, Ziccarelli also crafts Twilight Twirler hanging garden ornaments and copper hummingbird feeders.
Ziccarelli isn’t just a designer who creates beauty but isn’t interested in the practical aspects of his work. He makes his own brass fittings to ensure durability and longevity of the sprinklers and he even ofers a one year warranty on them.
Resources:
Picture It Perfect, 1347 Browndeer Ave., Arkdale, WI, (608) 564-7663
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Copper in the Arts: HISTORY
The Invention of the Daguerreotype Process
Boulevard du Temple, Paris, IIIe arrondissement,
Daguerreotype. The image shows a busy street, but because exposure time was over ten minutes, the traffic was moving too much to appear.
Photograph scanned from The Photography Book,
Phaidon Press, London, 1997. Courtesy of
Michael Maggs, Wikipedia
French artist Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre first began tinkering with a camera in 1824 and was successfully taking positive images via his namesake Daguerreotype method by 1837. In 1829, he had teamed up with French scientist Joseph Nicephore Niepce, who discovered how to produce a photographic image using a camera, silver-plated sheets of copper and silver iodide.
The only drawback was a lengthy eight-hour exposure time.
Through further experiments, however, Daguerre learned that implementing mercury vapor during development could reduce exposure time to about 30 minutes. He also perfected the process with a hyposulphate of soda fixing agent.
By 1839, the Daguerreotype was officially introduced to the paying public. Portrait studios began popping up in Paris, which opened about a dozen by 1844, and New York, boasting more than 70 by 1850. English chemist John Frederick Goddard, who fine-tuned the exposure time, was instrumental in the influx of these studios. He partnered with Richard Beard to open London’s first studio on Regent Street in 1841.
The detailed, step-by-step Daguerreotype procedure of that time began with polishing and buffing the silver-coated copper with a soft cloth, powder and oil until the silver plate was glossy like a mirror. The prepared plate was then sensitized in an airtight iodizing box, where it was first exposed to iodide vapor, turning it orange, and face-down exposed to chloride of bromine fumes. The combination of the chemicals resulted in the necessary light-sensitive coating.
The plate was loaded inside the camera and, after the photographer posed the subject with head rests, clamps or stands, an exposure was made on the plate surface by removing the lens. Exposure times improved from 30 minutes in 1839 to less than a minute by 1842. Developing of the image was done in the dark, hanging over a dish of heated (60 degrees) mercury.
Any unexposed silver iodide was washed off the plate with a sodium chloride solution to delicately “fix” the mercury highlights and shadows of the image. Because the photo was so delicate, the plated image was made less fragile when heated with gold chloride.
Some portraits were hand-colored, after the plate was coated in gum arabic and dried. The artist would breathe on the plate to create a sticky surface and use a paintbrush and dry powder pigment. Mounting of the Daguerreotype was protected by a glass-fronted frame to resist any scratching.
Although fewer people practice this today due to the lengthy process, a recent revival is helping put the focus back on Daguerreotype in the broader art world.
Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep - July 05, 2010
Arline Fisch, Corals, 2009. Coated copper wire.
Photograph courtesy of William Gullette
Each of Fisch's 'families' in the installation varies dramatically in form and color, suggesting different species of jellies. Suspended in air and swaying together in the galleries, they submerse visitors in a captivating and otherworldly undersea environment. A series of corals and sea anemones rest below, all fabricated in the same very small gauge of wire.
Fisch first explored jellyfish in her silver work in the mid-1960s, fascinated by their many forms and brilliant colors, and then revisited the form in a necklace based on the Lion's Mane Jellyfish in 1999. For this commission, she again chose the creature as her theme, inspired by Racine Art Museum's proximity to the waters of Lake Michigan.
"The larger-than-life sea creatures in Fisch's installation seem right at home in the Puget Sound," says Nora Atkinson, who is curating the local presentation of the exhibition. "I think it will be a real treat, especially for children and families."
Arline Fisch is a perennial figure in the metals community. She is one of the pioneers of the body-jewelry movement of the 1960s and author of the book Textile Techniques in Metal, published in 1975, 1996 and 2001. She currently holds the title of Professor of Art Emerita at San Diego State University.
Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep is organized by the Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin.
Resources:
Bellevue Arts Museum, 510 Bellevue Way Northeast, Bellevue, WA, (425) 519-0770
