The mysteries of copper

And so I finally got there. I have been thinking about this for so long now it seems like it is an old idea, but this week I have finally got it 'out'. The beginnings of a piece of work on copper, element 29. It is that shiny, reddish metal that was probably the first ever metal to be worked my man. 

The oldest metal object found to date in the Middle East consists of a tiny copper awl dating to around 5100 B.C. The artifact was unearthed in Tel Tsaf, an archaeological site in Israel located near the Jordan River and Israel's border with Jordan. 

The Tel Tsaf copper awl. Photo credit University of Haifa

In my research into this common place metal I have learned some very interesting things......

Copper, element 29, is yet another mineral and element that is essential to our everyday lives as both a semi precious and major industrial metal.  Think copper pipes, superconductors, electrical cables &  microchips
It is an essential nutrient in our daily diet and has antimicrobial properties and is becoming increasingly important to the prevention of infection. 

Native copper. http://images-of-elements.com/copper.php

It is widely thought that copper was named after the island of Cyprus, being a corruption of the Greek word "kyprios", ('of Cyprus'), as this was the location of huge ancient copper mines from the beginning of mining there, about 4000 BC. Interestingly, Cyprus is also (one of) the acclaimed birth places of the Roman goddess known as Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), perhaps more commonly known as Venus (or Aphrodite to the Greeks). The alchemists brought all this together with one symbol: ​​

Botticelli's Venus

​Copper is easily alloyed with other metals which makes it very useful. This was a property not lost on the ancient alchemists, who often mixed metals and other chemicals known to then in their quest to create the 'yellow metal' of their dreams: gold. ​​
Brass is an especially easy alloy to make from copper and zinc. It has great corrosion resistance and is easy to work and today is the standard alloy from which most accurate instruments such as clocks, watches and navigational aids are made. Rust-free brass pins widely used in wool making were an early and a very important product.
​Bronze, another alloy of copper made from mixing copper and tin is harder than pure iron and far more resistant to corrosion. Used by the Egyptians for weapons, armour, tools and, most famously, sculptures. 
​

Khonsu statuette currently in the Louvre. Image public domain

The hey-day of British copper mining was during the earlier part of the 19th Century, when Great Britain contributed more than half of the world's output, the bulk coming from Cornwall. From 1717 the copper ore was then transported to Swansea to be smelted. This huge industry created great wealth for the city, which became known as 'Copperopolis'.

Copperopolis: Swansea Photo from http://www.welshwales.co.uk/historic_swansea.htm

​Copper was thus a metal of great interest to the alchemists. It mixed alloyed well with other metals and gave them lots to hypothesise about. 
​
A most successful attempt at making gold was called "doubling" gold, which literally doubled the weight of the gold.  Greek alchemists knew it as diplosis. It basically was supported by the fact that while silver lends a greenish tint to gold, and copper a reddish tint, adding a mixture of both silver and copper to gold hardly changes its colour at all. Most likely the alchemists did not think of this as falsifying gold, rather seeing the gold as acting as a 'seed' which, nourished by the copper and silver, grew at their expense until the entire mass was gold.  Indeed, some alloys created in this way are completely legal in Europe and the UK - what do you think your 18-carat gold ring is made from????

Photo courtesy of Wellcome Images. Public domain

Anyway, with this and more buzzing around inside my head I got out my sketchbook and started to mess about. Here are a few of the pages:

Printing blocks using the Venus / Copper symbol and other symbols for copper

Although copper does not readily corrode as much as iron, its surface does oxidise when exposed to air. The oxide layer, unlike rust on iron which flakes off, remains on the surface of the copper in a beautiful green layer known as verdigris. This is the colour I decided to dye the fabric for the copper quilt.

After a lot of experimenting I managed to arrive at a lovely verdigris colour

The best verdigris colours came from a recipe using turquoise, bright blue and golden yellow procion dyes. The rest of the greens will probably end up being overdyed again transformed into something for another quilt about lead!

​And speaking about recipes..............
I found this very interesting 'recipe' for doubling gold in the book 'Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry.' by  Taylor, F. Sherwood : 
NOTE: Of course, you'll need to order in some oil of raddish if you want to have a try yourself. 
'Take Copper of Calais, one ounce, orpiment, native sulphur, one ounce and native lead one ounce: decomposed realgar (arsenic sulphide) one ounce. Boil in oil of radish, with lead, for three days. Put in roasting pan and place on the coals, till the sulphur is driven off, then take it off and you will find your product. Of this copper take one part and three parts gold. Melt it, fusing strongly and you will find it all changed to gold, by the help of God.'

note to self: order in some oil of raddish

Using some of the symbols from my sketchbook pages I made some print blocks from foam and lino and printed onto the green fabrics. I also used a monoprinting technique to create other thin lines and marks, all which have some connection with copper. You can see some of the results below. The fabrics have been cut into strips and pieced in a similar way as the other alchemy quilts I have made.

And these are two long strips I have stitched together, alongside the original quilt which was the first in the series which has just returned from a trip to China (I wish I could have accompanied it!).

As for what comes next, I am not sure. I obviously want to add stitch - I have some thin copper wire I would like to try - and I am also thinking about using copper leaf and copper shim, but as to how - that remains to be seen. I think some experimenting is in order!

​Thanks for reading.

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