How it started

~ How the portraits in copper started ~

While cleaning and re-organizing some shelves in his shop/studio, he noticed how some of the scrap copper pieces he had kicking around, had very bright, clean, crisp lines scratched into them. While contemplating where to put or what to do with the pieces next, he received a phone call and was put on hold. While he was on hold, he took a marker pen and colored the surface of the scratched copper and noticed how much more defined and how much more bright the scratches had become. He finished his phone call, made a mental note of how cool the copper looked etched and packed the scrap copper pieces into a box and set them aside in the attic. About a month later, a friends pet dog, Sam, had past away from old age. He was a true companion to his owner for 14 wonderful years. His sister approached Jim and asked him to draw or paint a picture of this pet to give as a gift from a picture she would provide. Jim said "of course I will" and proceeded to draw a portrait in charcoal from the photo she gave him. The portrait in charcoal came out great and Jim said to her that he had come across an exciting new medium he wanted to try for his artwork and told her he wanted to try to do the same photo image etched into copper. She was elated with the idea and said "that would be beautiful but can you do something like that" he said "I can see it finished" He set out to make this vision a reality. After having numerous problems with finding flat and uniformly colored copper, he settle with a ultra fine grade of copper foil and laminated it to a card-stock backing for support and to help render the copper as flat as possible. More problems came from finding a colored

top coat that he could etch threw and engrave into the copper below the surface all while leaving sharp crisp lines of definition. He ended up making his own special mixture and applied it as a top coat of black to add contrast and etched the image into the copper. Beautiful at last!. Finally finished and proud of his work, Jim put the portrait into a nice copper colored accent frame with a protective glass front and thought he was on his way to a wonderful gift and on to something truly unique and beautiful. While handling the portrait in its new accent frame, he had a human moment of error and the glass on the front broke and totally destroyed the portrait and the copper surface it was applied to. Heart broken and frustrated he called his friends sister and told her of the dilemma and that he needed more time. "I need a way to protect the surface of these images without glass and keep this from ever happening again?" he said. He made some sample portrait cards and tried a great many protective coatings on the market only to have nothing but more problems and headaches of chemical reactions with his topcoat and/or the surface coating being cloudy or fragile to the touch. Finally he ended up with a formula of his own and ended up producing yet another special mixture of his own to eradicate most of the problems with the surface. This new surface protection eliminated the unwanted reflection of the glass AND the danger of the broken glass in a accidental incident. By working with the protective sealer a little more and adding a few more elements to it, he produced a protective coating that was scratch resistant, protected the portrait from the suns harmful UV A-B rays AND found away to keep the copper from oxidizing and keep its bright beauty.

"When one door closes another one opens!"

Finally a new portrait was etched from the same photo and the new protective coating was applied. Jim give the new style portrait to his friends sister, she loved it and gave it to her brother as a gift. He loved it and couldn't say enough about it. A few days later he brought the portrait to his place of employment and showed his co-workers what he had received as a gift. They were amazed at the likeness the portrait had of his dog and loved the idea that it was all from a photo. More orders were soon placed and here he is today!

Jim has been involved with a great many unique and heart felt gifts now, that have been applied to frames, larger matted frames, memorial boxes of glass and wood and he has even made mantle and wall clocks in glass stained glass and wood featuring his copper portraits and artwork.

It is a great honor to part of the care, concern and compassion his customers have for their family and friends who's pets have past on and for the ones that are still with us and enjoyed by us. These truly unique gifts show his passion for art and your love shines true in each and every portrait he creates.

Now we have expanded into Mugs, Photo T-shirts and other apparel, Business Cards of Metal, Plastic and Paper all personalized for gift or business usage.

How It Started

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