RECYCLED COPPER STUDIO
ANCIENT COPPERSMITHING METHODS ARE STILL IN USE TODAY
Nestled in the beautiful, forested hillsides of Michoacán is a small town where the art of coppersmithing dates to the 12th century.
Various pre-Columbian groups - including the Mayans, Zapotecs, Toltecs and the Purepécha - possessed fairly advanced knowledge of metalworking, and were pioneers in the copper craft.
Later, smelting techniques were introduced by the Spanish. The coppersmiths continued to refine and perfect the craft with techniques passed down from generation to generation which remain in effect to this day.
COPPER TRADITIONS ARE MODERNIZED WITH THE USE OF RECYCLED METAL
Today, the vast majority of coppersmith studios utilize recycled copper, including old copper wiring, cables, pipes and tubes, rain gutters, and even discarded building domes and roof tiles. The recycled metal is melted down, and manually pounded into shape with sledge hammers. The process of transforming scraps of copper into functional pieces is manual, and iterative. A single item, such as a large tray, might be fired, hammered and dunked in tubs of water a dozen or more times before it's finished. Complex items, such as a copper sink, take days to complete.
SANTA CLARA DEL COBRE, MICHOACÁN, MÉXICO
While copper is artisanally produced in various regions of México, the small town of Santa Clara del Cobre is the main producer. Hundreds of family-owned workshops, ranging in size, work exclusively in copper. We work with several family-run studios here, which employ between 5 - 25 coppersmiths each.
