Bowling along nicely!

Welcome to www.copperbowls.co.uk

The new website dedicated to sourcing and supplying copper bowls to the enamelling community in the UK!

The range of bowls on offer stem from a collection built over many years by expert enameller Pat Johnson (who now although in well-deserved retirement) was keen to see these supplies continue, so she asked me if I would take this over as a small business and lead it forwards. My name is Eleanor and I am a good friend of Pat and fellow enameller and jeweller. I am only too pleased to be doing so, and it is my aim to work with enamellers to commission new bowl forms so this exciting art-form can creatively flourish well into the future. At the time of writing, I am placing orders for bowls where stock is low, whilst learning more about the most popularly requested bowls by you. It will take a few months for me to be completely on top of supply and demand. Please be in touch if there are particular bowls you are looking for and I will do my best to source new supplies as swiftly as I can. Please bear in mind ordering or commissioning new bowl shapes is not a quick process (up to 2 months) so you may prefer to order one of the stock shapes listed in the meantime.

For less-often-ordered-bowls that are out of stock, I will keep a waiting list of people who are interested and I will place an order when we reach sufficient numbers (unless you are wanting to buy in bulk, in which case I maybe able to proceed more swiftly). The bowls I supply are pure copper (99.99%). This purity is important to enamellers as alloys of copper can have a detrimental effect on the performance of enamel fired onto the surface.

Since bowl orders were last placed (well before I took over) the price of pure copper as a commodity (and the sheet we use) has rocketed alongside a shortage of supplies worldwide as well as increases in production costs. This has unfortunately led to a significant increase in bowl prices. I am committed to investing in this range and continuing to make as many of these bowls available as I can and to add new shapes in when funds allow.

I pay tribute to Pat Johnson as one of the UK's foremost contemporary enamellers, both as an artist and alchemist in enamel (and especially in recent years on copper bowls.) Those of you who have had the privilege of attending one of her courses will have come away inspired and enthused to "high fire and see what happens" on these curvaceous copper surfaces. She has also written a book on the subject giving clues on how she achieves some of her beautiful techniques which I would recommend to any of you setting out on your enamelling on copper bowls journey!

New copies are available on-line.

This stylised bird is one of Pat Johnson's enamel panels and here are a few of Pat's bowls to inspire you in the meantime. Thank you for reading, I look forward to hearing from you

Eleanor (www.jewelleryboat.com)