Artist Metalshaper
My practice uses an age old technique called “Raising” where a flat piece of copper sheet is manipulated by hammering over a steel stake drawing the copper up into a vessel form.
Each vessel is then patinated to produce a surface colouration, this is always under my development, I strive to manipulate the patinas to create a unique finish, and to create a vessel that draws you in.
Raising is a critically endangered craft on Heritage Crafts red list.
Vessels exhibited at
The Royal Academy.
The Royal West of England Academy.
The Royal Cambrian Academy.
The Pedestal Galley.
The Gallery at Green and Stone.
The Tarpey Gallery.
Whitewater Contemporary Gallery.
SH24/6 Seagrass
200mm high x 200mm wide
Seagrass is a vessel conceived after reading about the replanting of seabed areas in North Wales, The Solent and Isle of Wight, The Firth of Forth in Scotland.
It is the world’s only flower plant that can survive in seawater.
Seagrass can capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, it can protect our coasts from damaging storms and erosion and it occupies less than 0.1% of the seafloor.
SH24/7
150mm high x 200mm wide
£650
A gorgeous medium and light blue with tones of dark copper, and flecks of natural copper showing through this buried patina.
The interior is copper showing clearly hammer marks from the raising process.
SH24/1
140mm high x 180mm wide
£650
Hand raised and patinated copper.
Speckled grey blue with a dark grey base, the interior is plain copper showing the hammer marks of raising.
The rim has a waney edge quality.
CC3
On display at
Whitewater Contemporary Gallery, Polzeath, Cornwall.
240mm high x 160mm wide.
Hand raised and formed with a buried patina.
“Coastal Cave” v3
This is the third in this series, Coastal Cave is an abstracted form as a response to an almost hidden cave on the South West coastal path near to Clevedon. Only visible at low waters the form creates a shape of the sea embracing the coast, almost a hug,
SH24/17
220mm high x 165mm wide
£650
Texture
Creating the interface between land and sea.
Sitting above the sea and watching the waves breaking against a rock outcrop. The added texture creates the appearance of the rocks on the shoreline.
SH25 M1
Please enquire for updates and interest, at this stage the final sizes can be tailored for a commission.
190mm high x 250mm wide
A maquette for a larger piece for exterior display.
The form is based on the golden ratio, often seen in nature and this is my first response as part of an ongoing series.
This will be worked up into a much larger piece in either bronze or copper and patinated to be displayed in a natural environment, this could be changed if desired for an indoor piece.
SH25/10 1 and 2
110mm high x 180mm wide
On display at Whitewater Contemporary Gallery, Polzeath, Cornwall.
A pair of vessels numbered SH25/10 1of2 and 2of2
After raising, each vessel has been planished with a textured hammer, leaving a delicate surface pattern.
The pair of vessels were then patinated pale blue green together to create a consistent colour and density.
The patina was then scraped back to reveal the copper surface, highlighting the texture created by the hammer.
SH24/11
195mm high x 295mm wide
£2500
The speckling highlights the hammer marks from the raising process.
There is a subtle texture to the duck egg blue and tan patina
“Happenchance” created a border between the sea and sand giving an impression of the sea gently lapping the shoreline.
On a recent trip back to Cornwall, I was sitting on a the slate beds toward the back of the beach at Daymer Bay, where there are areas of samphire growing out of the purples, blues and greens of the Polzeath slates.
Looking out to sea, the duck egg blues, the tans and browns of the water line where the sea mixes with the sand were the inspiration for the 24/11 vessel patination.
SH24/12
106mm high x 160mm wide
A fine patina allowing a lot of copper colouring through from the base upward, this darkens toward the rim of the vessel to represent the dark brooding sky.
Soft blue greys, deep red, gold, copper, brassy, blue grey, black.
Inspired by my view across the River Severn towards Wales. There is a local saying,
“If you can see Wales it’s about to rain, If cannot see Wales, it is raining!”
Sometimes though, you have this amazing view, dark brooding clouds on the horizon, and a sparkling sea closer to home.
The hammer blows from the raising are still visible.
SH25/1
230mm high x 305mm wide
£4000
A larger vessel with a buried patina of mid and pale blues and blue greens allowing the copper to show through in many places.
My largest vessel to date, this has been an interesting journey, manipulating copper of this size creates it’s own set of demands.
I’m really pleased with the size and patination. Producing such a large piece is a journey in itself, and one not to hurry.
This is Vessel 25/6, it is 170mm high and 290mm wide at the rim.
Hand raised copper with a buried patina creating a myriad of patination colours through to a wonderful copper base with rusty reds oranges contrasted with yellow greens. I have been trying to achieve a patination effect like this for some time, and here it is.
£2500
Experimental vessel 1
SH24/4 “Scour” The first experimental vessel I have created, after raising the copper was masked then etched out leaving the partially perforated vessel. The original idea came from seeing two world war two wrecks laying off the coast just south of Clevedon. The sea has all but dissolved the steel structure leaving a skeleton.
Part of my personal collection.
On view at The Pedestel Gallery in Frome
Both of theses vessels are part of a desire to create something different, both have surface treatments to create texture, one is partially chased and then acid etched before patination, the other is experimenting using a ceramic technique -Obvara- to see how it would work on copper at lower temperatures. They both form part of my ongoing body of work.
The Pedestal Gallery is on 3 Stony Street, Frome BA11 1BU.
To contact me please use the form here.
Simon Hawkes
bristolworkshop1@gmail.com
Clevedon, North Somerset.
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