The trouble I see with this line of thought is the idea that there is enough copper to kill bacteria but not fish. That doesn’t compute. Bacteria need copper just as much as you and I, and enough copper will kill anything. So where’s the data showing that bacteria are more sensitive than, say, fish?
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I would love to see this Aggie! Any pics…?
Janet in Jerusalem
I would take pictures and show you but I haven’t been doing Jewelry and vessels much since I smashes my hand and arm, then had adverse reactions to an antibiotic 3 years ago. That barrel got dried out and hubby took the thing with the residue to a hazardous disposal place. I learned how to make quick copper vessels from a wonderful teacher Bob Coogan at the Appalachian Craft Center. That was a couple of decades and more ago. That is where I also learned to put the vessels into a big plastic barrel willed with old spend pickle. The only vessels that I haven’t sold are in storage in So Utah where I worked with the Utah Shakespeare Festival doing old Renaissance metal smithing. I’m in Florida.
It’s fun to make those vessels. You start with a big sheet of copper like a 4 foot by 6 foot size. It is how you cut it up usually with a beverly shear that makes the basis of the vessel. We used bailing wire to wire the sheet together once we bent it. Oh it was either 20 or 18 gauge in thickness. Once you had that initial one seam done you had a cone shape. You add a bottom or another cone. You can make the top of the cone pretty with cuts to make scallops or really any shapes. Add some trinkets and you have a vessel made in less than a day. It’s big and it looks like you spent a long time, but like we know with small jewelry it is in the tricks of the trade. If I do this in the future I will only make them 2 feet tall or smaller. No more huge vessels.
BTW Janet I love your filigree work. Maude’s ring is one I would buy. That says a lot since I could make one, but it wouldn’t be made by you if I did.
Aggie in Florida
I like the idea of copper plating the copper out of pickle but not sure how to do that. Dip a piece of steel in the pickle?
Yes, but it will probably destroy the pickle, because steel and copper swap places.
So for preparing for waste this way is good.
For reuse one could do an electrolysis with a carbon anode and a copper cathode.
This will pull out much of the copper.
And then replenish the chemicals.