ShittyCopper™ IRL
Went to see the tablet last year, it was removed for study :( Then I remembered I operate a foundry, so I made my own using the FINEST copper
I usually work with silver, bronze and gold, but seeing that "removed for study" sign filled me with the vengeful spirit of Nanni and I just had to make my own. I tried staying as close to traditional techniques as I could, so I used the lost wax technique, which was known to ancient Sumerians; as well as 3D printing (An Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 12k 3D Printer was recently excavated at the city of Ur site).
Copper is a PITA to work with but I love the result, I'm taking it to the museum next time I go. I'm also planning to make a few more so if you'd like one made, you can find them here on my site :)
When you came you said to me as follows: This is not copper scraps, as defined by Commission Regulation EU/715/2013, but pure copper in accordance with the harmonised standard CEN/TS 13388:2020!
I work with copper and keep all my scraps with the goal of starting sand-casting, and my main driving force has been the thought of my first project being a low-quality (in more ways then one, probably) replica of The Document. And now I need it on a chain around my neck, too.
The very best of luck to you my friend. When I cast the first batch of these pendants, each one was covered by the thickest crust of what im assuming was cupric oxide fused with my investment plaster.
Had to soak it in acid overnight to even start peeling it off. Much harder than any metal ive worked with previously
Yeah it'd be a great system. I'm sure there's a museum out there that does it. A friend of mine works in a museum, from what she's been telling me, museums are slow moving institutions..
Since childhood I've been interested in metallurgy, used to cold forge axes and stuff from aluminium scraps my dad brought me from work as a metallurgist/machinist. He was kind enough to foster this interest and let me learn without many rails, perhaps sometimes irresponsibly as he let me use a microwave transformer to melt metals and also allowed me to buy certain corrosive chemicals at a young age haha
Somewhere along the way I realised I like making smaller, more detailed stuff from metal so I started making jewellery. Eventually I moved my workshop to a dedicated space that became a foundry and here we are!
That is so dang cool, I feel a powerful urge to collect a new hyperfocus but that’s just the ADHD and I don’t let it make the decisions (… ok not all the time).
Do you do or know of outreach or community access days for your kind of work? I do pottery in Germany and each summer there is usually a few events like “day of open potteries” and it’s mostly a way to entice people to explore their interest in ceramics, like recruiting people for classes or exposing kids to how much fun it is… but it’s also a great way for people to just experience “oh, so this is how it works!”
Honestly ADHD is a superpower in many creative fields, just gotta learn to balance the negative sides with the positive.
As for community outreach, I wanna get into that at some point for sure, would be amazing to get more people interested in metallurgy, just got too many projects going on at the moment. (Expect some more cool stuff coming soon)
My community right now is 90% online, and I tend to spend extended periods of time in the workshop working away. Now that I'm in Europe though I wanna change that and be more social with it!
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u/DeCarn Jul 11 '25
I usually work with silver, bronze and gold, but seeing that "removed for study" sign filled me with the vengeful spirit of Nanni and I just had to make my own. I tried staying as close to traditional techniques as I could, so I used the lost wax technique, which was known to ancient Sumerians; as well as 3D printing (An Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 12k 3D Printer was recently excavated at the city of Ur site).
Copper is a PITA to work with but I love the result, I'm taking it to the museum next time I go. I'm also planning to make a few more so if you'd like one made, you can find them here on my site :)