Not all my customers are enamellers and I have been intrigued and surprised by alternative requests for copper bowls for other purposes since I started selling them in February this year. People have bought them as pure copper shaving bowls to whip up a rich soapy foam, and I've had several requests for pure copper bowls (of huge diameter) potentially for use as bird baths!
However, the most unusual order by far has to be a recent request for a copper bowl for a weather vane. No self respecting wind-compass is complete without a bulbous base, so having posted out one of my largest stock bowls to my customer (Bowl 8A) with instructions on how to safely drill a hole in the bottom, I waited in anticipation (Of what use is a bowl with a hole in it? That's the part that had me hooked to know what it was destined to be?)
After several conversations, my customer kindly sent me a photo of the upturned mounted bowl and weather vane, with matching verdigris patina. Superb!
Verdigris is naturally forming green or bluish green pigment or patina (of copper carbonate) which develops on pure copper surfaces when exposed to water and air. (Think of the Statue of Liberty, which is green and covered in verdigris.) Historically verdigris was also a pigment used in artists paints in the middle ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods. This chemical oxidisation process can take years, but there are ways of making it develop more swiftly involving acetic acid (vinegar) and salt water to create a patina.
Here's a photo of the finished vane......Well done, it properly sets off the trumpeting angel,
the answer is definitely blowing in the wind!
Bowl 8A - used as a base for this lovely weather vane.
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