Handmade Copper Grouper Sculpture

Description

Created by Local Artist August Powers

Artist August Powers gravitates toward making sea creatures because of his lifelong love for the ocean. He starts a sculpture with a sheet of copper that he buys from a roofing company in bulk. He begins with an idea for a marine animal — sometimes he’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a vision for the next copper fish he’ll create — then he cuts out forms in the copper with heavy duty scissors called aviation snips.

Next, depending on what kind of creature it is, he’ll add electrical wire or copper tubing bought from Ace Hardware and braze the materials together with a torch.

“You have to look at the flat piece of copper and figure out with the brute force of your hands how to make it become a living thing,” he said, explaining his artistic process. He will sometimes create a new welding process to, say, turn a soft coral sculpture red. 

And all sculptures are one-offs, made completely by hand. No short-cuts with expensive plasma cutters to bulk cut the copper.

Every piece is unique and one of a kind!