Copper

Copper Garden Sculpture

A Soft Warm Coloured Metal

Copper may be the easiest metal to work with. It is soft, malleable and forgiving. The colour is a rich warm brown with a hint of orange.

Malleable

Heat copper to high enough temperatures and it is fantastically flexible, offering lots of freedom to cut, weld and form it. That is why it is so widespread, with applications from architectural cladding to cooking utensils. For a garden artist, that is a spur to create interesting shapes, like the Bite bitten copper garden sphere. Even simple spheres are quite hard to achieve with solid bronze.

The other side of copper's relative softness is is that it is not as strong as bronze, which is why many of David Harber's garden pieces prefer bronze over copper.

Ageing and Patination

The oxidizing process that occurs when copper meets the air creates a protective skin that helps copper to weather well. With a little help from us, this process can lead to striking patinations. The Bite is again an example.

Traditional for Sundials

Copper is a traditional material for wall mounted sundials and remains a popular choice for that reason today.