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TRYON—Tryon Arts and Craft School is offering a two-day workshop in Beginning/Intermediate Copper and Textured Bronze with Joe Cooper this August. The workshop will occur on Friday, August 18, from 1-5 p.m. and Saturday, August 19, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. 

Cooper has lived in Tryon since 2003 and has worked with copper and the braze welding method known as “textured bronze” since 1983. He will teach students the basic techniques of braze welding on copper with an oxy-acetylene torch. Participants will also learn how to cut and shape copper sheet metal, copper tubing and copper wire. The workshop is designed for beginners or intermediate students with good manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. 

Each student will make at least one candleholder or wine coaster using the torch welding method. Tacking, blending, texturing and borders will be taught as basic techniques, with other projects for more advanced classes including copper and textured bronze leaves and flowers, panels, plant stands, sculptures, candle sticks and cabinet knobs. 

Cooper’s favorite part of teaching is passing on this particular welding method to others and learning new ideas and approaches from his students. He encourages anyone on the fence about signing up to consider the workshop as a way to use ordinary forms of copper metal to make things that will last for lifetimes. 

“Playing with fire makes me pay attention to the molten puddle and the hot flame,” Cooper says. “Copper and textured bronze is a way to use ordinary forms of copper metal to make

things that will last for lifetimes.”

Students are advised to bring safety glasses, leather utility gloves and hearing protection. Cooper’s website is www.coppertexturedbronze.com, and attendees are also encouraged to visit the Tryon Arts and Craft School website tryonartsandcrafts.org for pictures of things made from Copper Textured Bronze.

The cost is $170 for members and $200 for non-members, with an additional $30 materials fee payable to the instructor at the time of the workshop.