Copper Tooling Class (IN PERSON) "What a relief it is".

CREATE YOUR OWN COPPER WORK OF ART

Using common household tools, create a bas-[low-] relief from a 5" x 7" sheet of 36 gauge copper.  If you can gather up nail punches, small wooden dowels, ‘inkless’ ink pens, small artist paint brush handles, wooden ‘shish-ka-bob’ skewers, etc., you can shape, form, work, and decorate copper!

YOU WILL RECEIVE TWO PIECES OF COPPER

1 – small piece of copper for your tooling experiments – ‘what kind of texture will I get if I use this tool on my copper?’

1 – 5x7 piece of copper for your final design

ITEMS TO BRING

· small nail punches – if you don’t have these, the instructor will have a few for you to borrow.

· 1 or 2 wooden ‘shish-ka-bob’ skewers

· 2 or 3 small artist brushes – size 00 to 5 – if you don’t have these, the instructor will have a few for you to borrow.

· small wooden dowel [optional]

· regular/Phillips screwdrivers [optional]

· ink-less ink pens/caps

· one magazine

· one pencil

· any small non-flexible item or ‘tool’ that you think you’d like to try.

· your own 5x7 drawing [outlined only]

or

· you may use one of the provided 5x7 drawings from the instructor –(feel free to make any changes on these) (Drawings may be non-objective or representational –The instructor will have samples of both styles)

BRINGING YOUR OWN DESIGN?

1. Keep your shapes simple

2. Need to overlap shapes? Keep this at a minimum and/or be prepared to show contrasting tooled textures between overlapped shapes to avoid identification issues of ‘neighboring areas’.

3.  Man-made objects usually require exact definitions of lines and shapes [buildings, vehicles, bottles, bowls, etc]

4. Natural objects can be a lot more ‘forgiving’ when tooling (animals in general, trees, plants etc.)

5. Although you can find symmetry in nature -  leaves, insects, animals, etc. –you still have a certain degree of ‘forgiveness’ when tooling these shapes.

WHEN YOU ARE DONE

“So…what do I do with my tooled copper after I’m done?”

You will be shown various ways to present your finished tooled work of art – the choice will be up to you!

YOUR INSTRUCTOR: HOLLY LANDES

Holly Wade Landes received her B.A. in Art Ed [K-12] from WVU in 1977. Obtaining a Master’s in Education in 1997 from Shenandoah University, Holly retired as an art teacher from Hardy County Schools in 2015. Her work in river rock mosaics has been published in “Birds and Blooms” magazine, and she has won a couple of ribbons here and there through the years.