Copper is such a great metal. When its annealed (heated very hot then cooled) it becomes so soft that it reminds me of McCowan’s Highland Toffee. Mind you, that could say more about the toffee than the copper! Anyway, the gist is that copper is happy to be bent and twisted into shape so its a great base for making miniature trees. Happily, the colour of copper is perfect too. When its heated it goes from a dull pinkish colour to all sorts of rich reds and browns. A bit of texture, courtesy of my trusty hammer, gives the appearance of bark. The most important element is having an eye for the shape of the tree and translating that into the metal. I use paper templates to start things off but I find that cutting freely into the metal gives a more natural result.

The following film gives an insight into the stage where I add tiny leaves to the bare copper branches.

This film shows the final bits of soldering to add leaves to the branches.

Really, a sheet of copper is not that different to a piece of paper but obviously much harder and stronger. Pretty much anything you can draw on paper can also be draw on copper. The advantage of copper over paper is that copper holds its shape, its happy to accept texture and to have further pieces soldered to it. Don’t need to point out that the disadvantage is that its hard to cut and sharp - my poor fingers will testify to that! But it has an expression of material that is just so enjoyable.

I hope the following photos will give you some insight into the process of going from paper idea to finished metalwork. This piece sold really fast!