Laura Brittany

Cute, right? Salvaged copper granules, coloured with magic, just for you.

Salvaged tubing turned into dread beads and a hair ring. The brass beads were sanded and smoothed, while the copper beads were flared by hammering and then polished. The copper hair ring was smoothed on the inside, left textured on the outside, and then heat coloured.

I was gifted a copper panel a few months back, and told to make something with it. I soon realized: this is a copper plated steel panel. I can't hammer this! Luckily I had Pre-Shrunk on my mind, and so saw this as an opportunity to play. I used salt, water, vinegar, and ammonia to take this panel from a piece of garbage to an ominous nighttime mountain scene. (I was floored when I came back to it and saw how well the mountain came out in the second image, and floored again when I saw an iguana's chin and left eye. Do you see it too?)

My submissions for Argyle Fine Art's 2016 Pre-Shrunk: Stolen Spellbook. Copper Shoreline. Salvage at Dawn. Salvage at Dusk. All made from salvaged copper sheets.

Finished! Submission for the 2015 NSCAD Alumni Exhibition.

The five light shades for my NSCAD Alumni Show submission from various stages of raising to ready-for-wiring. After I finished raising them, holes were added to each and they were heat coloured. I was planning on assorted tones like apricot, gold, and plum. Instead, I pulled off an even gradient from orange to pale pink. I’m still floored with the result!

My plan for the NSCAD Alumni Exhibition. Raised copper vessels as light shades for a drupe fruit inspired lamp.

Copper flashing (when copper deposits onto the surface of other metal when in a cleaning solution) is usually a big problem. For this set, I used strategic copper flashing to my advantage as a design feature.

Years later and I still love these things.

Double-ended counter plane spoon, formed by hammering from a round copper rod, 1 tsp and 1/4 tsp.

I made this contraption for a design class at NSCAD a few years ago. We were required to make a bicycle themed project, and a Rube Goldberg machine was one of five options.

(The etched copper was lifted from the scrap bin at NSCAD, so thank you to whoever didn’t like it!)

Still one of my favourites, a squared taper from a round copper rod. Yep - I hammered a round rod into a copper spike. Just because I could.

Patina samples while taking hollowware at NSCAD. The orange and magenta are so easy to get, but that blue? I wish I’d have taken notes that day.