Copper doesn't lie. Leave it to the elements and it tells its own story — green blooms spreading across the surface, each piece aging differently. These are one-off originals on oxidised copper, each with its own patina background that I can't control or repeat.
I'm layering printed collage elements over the copper, then sealing everything with varnish. The metal becomes the canvas, but it's also part of the image — those natural oxidation patterns working with the printed elements, not against them. It's like collaborative printmaking with chemistry.
The patina process takes weeks. I oxidise the copper sheets outside the studio, letting the Hertfordshire weather do half the work. Rain, frost, morning dew — it all leaves marks. By the time I'm ready to print, each sheet has become something unique. No two backgrounds are the same because no two pieces of metal weather identically.
Then comes the printing. Collage elements built up in layers, registration marks meaningless because I'm working with surfaces that have already warped and buckled. The varnish overlay seals everything but adds another variable — how it pools in the oxidised valleys, how it catches the light differently across the green and brown patches.
The copper stock came from a demolition yard in St Albans. Sheets that were heading for scrap, now cut down to 300 x 350mm pieces. Some still have ghost marks from their previous life — nail holes, scratches, dents. Those become part of the final piece.
Each one gets a handmade stained oak frame. Solid timber, not veneer. The frame dimensions accommodate the irregular edges where the copper has oxidised beyond my original cutting lines. Nothing here fits standard measurements because nothing here follows standard processes.
These aren't gallery pieces with pristine surfaces and perfect corners. They're workshop experiments that worked. Scratches and marks are part of the process — me learning how copper behaves, how inks sit on oxidised surfaces, how varnish reacts with metal patina. Every imperfection is documented learning.
The variants available represent different stages of the oxidation experiments. Some pieces spent longer outside, some got different chemical treatments, some were printed when the patina was still developing. Each number or letter designation marks a different approach to the same core idea.
For collectors who understand that the most interesting work happens when you stop trying to control every variable. When you let the materials have their say.
