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After some etching zinc and copper I was keen to use these techniques on a larger piece of copper.
For some time I wanted to create a triptych of panels in copper where the plate could be printed the metal plate was also a piece of art itself that could be displayed. I liked the way of creating patinas of oxidisation using liquids to hasten the reaction and creating blue and greenish colours.
The starting point was three drawings from previous college work where there was a link between the three perhaps a flow or perhaps a transformation over time between physical states. I also wanted to have some three dimensional aspect to the panels.
After some discussion I decided to forget about etching these for printing and explore the sculptural use of the copper with drawing.
A couple of years previously I was inspired two years previously by an exhibition at Dancing Light Gallery by Sue White Oaks.
Sue White Oaks worked in copper and had assembled and soldered pieces of copper for domestic plumbing at her home and then realised the metal could be used to represent and express her love for the shapes of living creatures through evolution. An industrial designer she saw a connection between abstract looking industrial robots and the mechanistic form of a beetle.
She made a copper sculpture “Rhinoceros after Durer” which was modelled on Albrecht Durer's woodcut which in turn was based on a sketch by an unknown artist of an rhinoceros brought to Lisbon from India.
Sue White Oakes' copper sculpture was created based on the woodcut and was one of her sculptures that could be bronzed by James Parker.
I am going to explore sculptural use of copper and drawing and draw on other artists.
There are many different techniques and techniques possible with copper and many tool so I will limit myself to a few basic ones to give me a way to express myself.
I still want to make large copper panels that are robust and can be kept outdoors but for this college module I will start on a smaller scale using thinner copper that is cheaper and can be easily cut and will be quicker to start work with.
I will look at whether copper can be collaged by attaching smaller pieces and whether this can be done solder to start with.
I visited the artist Bryony Knox, a Silversmith at her studio for a chat about using copper for a large panel. I showed her the thin roll I had but it is probably too thin for a panel, she had tried various thicknesses and suggested using copper that come in rolls 30cm x3.6m and is 0.127 mm thick as it is thick enough to hold shape but thicker that would take all day to shape. It could be attached to a panel and hold shape if filled behind, perhaps with plaster, otherwise it would dent if you pushed it on the wall. Bryony also recommended rivets to join pieces instead of solder. The problem with solder and copper is that the entire piece has to be raised to the right temperature, you cannot just apply heat to the part to be joined as on a large piece the heat will not be enough as it is conducted over a large area. There is also the problem that this can spoil any colour you worked hard to get on the pieces being worked on. There is also the issue of having something large enough such as thermal bricks that are heat proof underneath. Bryony told me rivets can be used to join pieces too. She uses pitch which supports the piece while hammering, it can be melted in an old frying pan. Also you can use something like a mouse mat which has some give. Metal workers also use wooden anvils and mandrels they make themselves from logs with depressions or raised curves to shape the metal around. As well as oxidising to green and blue she makes red by heating then reducing the temperature rapidly with water. She combines different metals and colours.
Rivets – drill a hole insert rivet and hammer and saw off.
Her degree piece with many techniques including sawing
Hinges and rivets
I had decided to explore making a mask using copper and started by attempting to cast using alginate and plaster. I started by casting my face and head using plaster bandages. This was first intended to be provide a structure to support an alginate cast of my face and secondly to provide a cast of head shape to use to expand the face into a head.
The next step was to cast my face with alginate and had several attempts which failed due to temparature/ consistency and care using with the alginate.
Previously I had done this more successfully by making a thicker than usual batch of alginate and pouring it over myself and then applying pre-prepared plaster bandages while unable to see, on top of the alginate mask so it was then supported.
This time I had prepared a plaster cast which I hoped to use to catch the alginate and support it when taking it off my face but this proved difficult.
I am interested in copper as a material which is also commodity where it's use in production gives it value more so than those materials used mainly for pomp, ornament and glamour, fetishized, dug from earth on industrial scale reburied in underground vaults in another place. Why is one material differently and can commodity apply to human ?
I ended up using alginate in a bowl and used a breathing tube whilst it set. This meant the alginate could hold together but the cast was distorted where the breathing tube went into my mouth.
https://snap.as/me/photos/yDlFgALv I was however pleased to capture eyes partly open as intended.
I was able to then use the alginate to make a plaster cast from which to model the copper.
Copper Material
I decided to go with copper roll which is 0.127mm or 0.005” thick. This is a lot thinner than etching plates and much easier to shape requiring less force and tools that thick plates. It is thicker than some foil I tried which was too thin to hold its shape.
I quickly discovered that the edges are sharp and quickly destroy the fine features captured in the plaster that I was using as a model.
My intention is to have impressions drawn and embossed on the pieces of coper but first wanted to explore to what extent the metal could capture the impression of the plaster.
Applying Copper first tranche.
Copper
Eyes
My plan is draw and patina pieces before assembling later sewing with thread and also using rivets.
At the moment I am undecided on the size and shapes of individual pieces of copper, whether even, odd and what sizes to use.
I have been beating the metal with a hammer smoothing with a toothbrush handle which makes it more pliable. I have not tried heating it as may find this out when looking at colour and patina.
I also want to explore casting in something more sturdy than plaster to see if I can use the cast face as a stone anvil for shaping the metal against.
I started by shaping pieces and then joining with sellotape.
I wanted to try methods for joining and preferred options are rivets.
These need to be balanced on the end of a pointy tool held pointing up in a vice. The point has a tiny cup that holds the rivet pointing upwards.
After making holes in the copper pieces to be joined the holes in the pieces of copper are aligned and put over the rivet so it points through into the inside of the piece being made. Then the rivet is hit with rounded hammer to make a flange (a protruding rim that holds the rivet in place). This takes a bit of practice and some rivets get wasted or lost. After a while more are successful and they look quite attractive.
Rivets
A second option I will use is sewing with copper wire that involves making holes and threading the wire through.
Sewing with copper wire
Another option was using pop rivets and a special tool.
These make the most effective and easiest joins but are stainless steel and I don't like the look of them in this context.
I came across huge public statues by Sophie Ryder at the Piece Hall in Halifax where there is a gallery showing some of her smaller drawings and sculptures mostly from 1990s. The subjects of the works in all media are often a minotaur and hares which also are quite human and in relationship with each other. She is not that interested in making a replica of animals but translates the creatures movement in sculpture.
The massive works fit in the grand piece hall square that has the feel of a preserved Roman plaza. In the small gallery there are smaller forms of the sculptures maquettes and pieces made before the bigger outdoor ones. She uses plaster over wire frame to create the large bronzes and includes small cogs, wheels and toy cars embedded in the plaster to create fine detail and texture. 
The muted crayon and charcoal drawings have the same style and feel as the sculptures. She also had made drawings using wire that she manipulated to create lighter and darker areas on a two dimensional surface. 
This might be wire used for armature for some smaller pieces and a couple of the larger pieces outside are cast from a wire sculpture itself without a covering of plaster.
Drawing from mirror
I was finding it useful drawing from mask and seeing it not as a face but a landscape discovering the form.
Drawing from the mask which covers features and blanks expression almost repressive.
The Financial Times mask using headlines from the Financial Times on war, art and pension worries.
Richard Pochinko used a method for clown development drawing on previous traditions to develop their mask. His clown schools had participants make 6 masks that can represent whole life experience. Passing through these and experiencing leads to them combined as the clown's face.
The Trickster seems shameless, articulate, unpredictable breaks the rules, exposes and ridicules authority and can shapeshift. The trickster understands shame and uses their own masks to expose the masks of those with power.
The Fool has no need of a mask experience and no plans, delighted by the present moment with will leap into the unknown without fear or baggage experience life as if newly arrived from planet Zog.
The true self is shameless, innocent and found here in the present moment.
Final work for module
After breaking the pop rivet gun My intention was start a new mask sewing together squares which I prepared and degreased ready for patina. The patina was going to be blue from ammonia and salt. I collected newspaper headlines that I photographed and took to printer who laser printed on acetate. I was going to use this to create transfers of the toner on the copper squares to resist the amonia patina leaving copper headlines on the squares before shaping and sewing them together. Unfortunately I forgot to reverse the images before printing so the toner transfers would have been mirror images (back to front writing). That is as far as I got, basically I did not have enough time to complete and am unlikely to do so soon.
