A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Slow and Steady: Nancy Worden’s Electroformed Jewelry
Copper necklace design by Nancy Worden.Photograph courtesy of Nancy Worden
“I started making things as a child,” she recalls. “I had the good fortune that my grandparents lived on a farm and you had to entertain yourself.”
Today she is one of the few copper artists who works with electroforming, a scientific, intuitive and time-consuming process, which has provided her with many benefits.
Worden uses copper electroforming to cover a non-metallic surface, employing wax to the original shape in a similar process to the lost wax method of creating a sculpture. Using a conductive spray to cover the areas the metal forms on, her jewelry piece is placed in her 10 gallon tank of copper electroforming solution which is connected to the negative lead from the rectifier. She then places a 16 gauge copper anode in the tank, which is connected to the positive lead. A low voltage charge is passed through the materials to create a relief, which allows her to create thicker copper structures or to make lighter, more hollow works. The piece is allowed to build-up on average of two to eight hours or until the proper thickness is achieved. After the copper is finished, Worden often plates over the copper with nickel then puts copper plate on top of that to receive the patina.
Luddite's Lament, Copper necklace by Nancy Worden.Photograph courtesy of Nancy Worden
“I was casting my jewelry pieces and they were getting bigger and heavier,” she recalls. She entered a competition and received grant money from the City of Seattle, which she then used to learn electroforming. “This gave me a three dimensional form that was hollow, so the copper became a way to work large without the weight. I put my jewelry on a weight loss program and I did it using copper electroforming.”
Though she was freed from weight restrictions, the electroforming also helped to give her work an aged look.
“Everyone else is making shiny pieces, but I’m trying to get texture, distortion,” she says.
Even with specific calculations electroforming is not an exact science, it’s an additive technique. She uses Technic, Inc. of Rhode Island to source her copper alloy. “Copper has a warmth to it - it’s fun to work with because you can heat it up, hammer it. It’s friendly, it has a personality,” she says. “Copper is one of the original elements, and has been worked in so many cultures, it has a long human history.”
Resources:
Archive Designs Warms the Glow in Home Accents
Hammered copper island hood with forged steel strapping and hammered rivets. Features repousse oak leaf and acorn by Laurie Cox.Photograph courtesy of Joseph Mross
“Since I was little, I’ve always been interested in making things,” Mross says. “In high school, we still had metal shop, and the art teacher let me do cast lead figures back then.”
Mross earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine and Applied Arts through the University of Oregon and spent a good amount of his earlier years working with his father in home construction and design.
“Working with jewelry and metalsmithing—that’s when I really started to stray from the curriculum,” he says about his college years.
Today, his father, Gene, handles the role of production director in his studio.
“There’s a lot of variety in what we do,” Mross admits. “We always like to apply our own characteristics and try to make work that feels like it’s from 100 years ago but with a contemporary edge.”
Many of the home accents Mross and his team creates are kitchen range hoods, backsplashes, sinks, countertops, wall décor samplings and clocks. Lighting fixtures—often whimsically put together yet old-seeming chandeliers with gravity tugging at the copper accents—are often commissioned by his clients. Select works designed by Mross are now in the homes of Barbra Streisand and chef and sausage connaisseur Bruce Aidells.
24" copper platter featuring owl repousse by Laurie Cox.Photograph courtesy of Joseph Mross
“When I’m designing a piece, I’m always looking for what’s lyrical in it,” Mross says.
While working with copper, Mross often joins in other metals like wrought iron, brass, zinc and real pewter. He sources his copper from Alaskan Copper & Brass Company in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA.
“Copper is really an amazing metal to work with,” he says. “Of course, it’s so malleable, so it has huge potential for moving it around and shaping it. And I love the character it takes on over time as it ages—I’m very interested in how things age.”
The artistic possibilities and history weaved into copper have a clear persuasion on Mross.
“A piece of copper has been touched hundreds of times and develops a dark brown in the crevices, but the highlights are still a little bit bright, he says. “That to me is really appealing in a metal.”
Resources:
Metal Jewelry with a Sensuous Richness that Longs to Be Touched
Copper brooch object 1.Photograph courtesy of Emanuela Aureli
“The copper wire appealed to me because of its colors and softness,” she recalls. “I still have the rusted German-made wire cutter he used."
Since then, she begun creating her own line of intricately weaved copper wire out of her studio in Santa Fe, NM.
"I began with a pair of round-nose pliers, brass and copper wire, beads, feathers and sold my earrings at flea markets, concerts and street fairs throughout Europe,” she says. “Over the years, I've accumulated copper wire of assorted gauges, various thicknesses of copper sheet metal and numerous boxes of scrap. People have gifted me with rolls of tubing and other useful copper. I sometimes purchase from industrial supply/recycle stores or Rio Grande in Albuquerque. I still have two pounds of 99.99% electrolytic copper shots from years ago that I use to melt my own alloys. With manual rolling mills and a draw bench, I roll my metal to sheet and pull it to wire or tubing. I have several draw plates with round, square and triangular profiles," she reports.
Having learned her craft from street artisans and her own mistakes, Aureli also apprenticed with goldsmiths in Italy, the U.S., and holds a BFA from CCA in Oakland, CA. In her Santa Fe studio, she fabricates cubes, spheres, strips of metal and coils of wire into earrings, rings, pendants or brooches. Her background enables her to blend traditional metalsmithing with Northern European design. Inspired by simple, geometric shapes, urban/industrial landscapes and the quiet expanse of high desert, she creates jewelry containing moving parts that encourage wearers to engage in playful interaction.
One unique feature of Aureli's work is her penchant for hands-on techniques. Besides producing her own alloys, she experiments with colorful yellow, orange and deep red patinas, infusing a warmth that is irresistible to touch.
Copper ring for gesticulating hands.Photograph courtesy of Emanuela Aureli
Aureli exhibits her jewelry at several national venues every year, and has created quite a following for her work. At her last Smithsonian Craft Show, in keeping with the tactile quality of her pieces, Aureli welcomed a special tour for the blind. She was delighted when her jewelry sparked big smiles and vocal appreciation from such a special group of visitors.
“For the Triple Martini 2012 show at the IO Gallery in New Orleans this fall, I made an 'adorned' stirring stick for a stainless steel martini glass. It can become a ring or necklace when not in use. I enjoy the challenge of heat coloring the very thin metal to the even orange and red colors I love using a quick, gentle gesture brush with my torch."
Aureli is excited about her future plans, deepening her experimentation with copper.
"I am just now beginning to lighten my work with more organic and fluid shapes. An entire series is in progress using thin sheet metal cut in strips with a pattern-making scissors. I combine copper, silver, gold, brass and absolutely like the feel of these 'feathers' plus the tingling sound the light metal makes.”
Resources:
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: NEWS
Frederic Remington’s Lifetime Casts of Bronzes in Rare Exhibition at Sid Richardson Museum - November 08, 2012
The Rattlesnake by Frederic Remington, 1906, Bronze
Photograph courtesy of the Sid Richardson Museum
“Frederic Remington created 22 of the most memorable bronzes of any American sculptor of his time,” says museum Director Mary Burke, “and we are very proud to present nine of them as part of the museum’s 30th anniversary celebration. Remington’s influence in shaping the West of the popular imagination cannot be overstated.”
Eight of the nine sculptures are on loan from rarely seen private collections, and one is from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. They will be paired with his paintings from the Sid Richardson Museum and the Carter museum to demonstrate how his artworks reveal action in a two-dimensional versus a three-dimensional medium.
“Remington used to explain that he had the ability to imply motion by getting the viewer to see the animation in something as continuing,” says Rick Stewart, the guest curator of the exhibition who is one of the nation’s leading authorities on Remington. “His sculptures are just in stop-action practically; they defy gravity! The connoisseurship level is as high as you can get with Remington.”
