One of a kind, hammered copper mirror frame, how it's made

A while back I made a custom copper sink for a lovely home in Florida. 

They asked me to make a coordinating mirror frame. 

Inspired by ripples and waves - the energy and fluidity of water that their little island is surrounded by make this piece extra unique. 

Here you can see the first steps in pulling this hammered copper frame together:

Next, a lot of heat went into this one.

From annealing to soften it so I could straighten everything out, to tack welding, grinding, more welding, and sanding. 

Finally, no piece is complete without finishing touches.

I used a brown/black patina to enhance the ripples and waves and sealed it with matte clearcoat and renaissance wax. 

And, since I'm a glutton for punishment (not on purpose!), here are a bunch of things I did that didn't end up being useful. 

Well, useful for practice I guess? I did all the steps below to create a solid backing for the mirror frame but it warped too much and I was afraid it'd end up creating too much tension on the mirror glass. 

So, I scrapped it and created a simple bracket system instead (which you can see at the end of the final patina video above). But you may enjoy seeing many of the processes that go into metalwork in general... cutting, filing, sanding, drilling, and tapping for screws.

Definitely a labor of love, but worth it! 

I don't have pictures of it with the glass mirror installed yet, but here's the completed frame with yours truly, the maker behind the mirror. 

What do you think?! 
I love hearing your feedback, comment below...

Interested in seeing more one of a kind, metal art? 

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