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Denny applying powered glass to copper |
What they look like before firing |
Loading into the kiln |
Copper-enamel is actually an ancient technique and there are examples of it dating from antiquity. The colors will never fade and are not harmed by the weather, so many of the products do well outside. The only condition to that being that if the copper-enamel is mounted on wood, the wood will naturally decay in time. Being glass fired onto copper, it would experience fractures if it were bent or hit by an object, but under normal conditions, copper-enamel will last next to forever.
Yes...after giving a lecture to his daughter's high-school art
class on antique jewelry, the art teacher mentioned that she found it
interesting that he had some
enamel pieces of
jewelry in his collection.
She stated that the school had a kiln for making enamel jewelry, but that she
did not know anything about it & would Denny be interested in working with
the kiln to figure out the process?
This is how it all began...Denny checked out books from the 1950's from the library on the copper enameling process and experimented with the high-school's kiln until he managed to understand & communicate the process to the teacher. Since he learned on this kiln which happened to be large, he felt a little spoiled & was not content to work on a small kiln, so he ended up building his own large kiln which allowed him to make pieces much larger then jewelry size.
With his background in collecting antiques, it was a natural progression to combine his large enamel pieces with antique and found objects as well as stained glass, stones, and later on, his own sculptures made from rock-hard putty & "marbelite" (both being much harder than plaster). He uses these various materials for creating paintings, mirrors, lamps, clocks, garden pieces, sculpture, and yes...jewelry.
Born in Pittsburgh, PA., he arrived in Charlotte, NC at age 6yrs. In 1992, after living with his wife and 2 children near Charleston, SC for 13yrs., he moved back to Charlotte, and bought land in Peachland, NC. Denny and his wife moved onto the Peachland property in 2002.
As an art, antiques, & antiquities collector since 1972 & dealer since 1985, Denny has accumulated a lot of materials for his endeavors. His artistic career started in 1990 when he began to create as a *self-taught artist* in copper enamel. However, his interest started much earlier. At age 12yrs., he learned to make molds with clay and began casting in plaster & tin. He often incorporates castings in silver, bronze, marbelite, epoxy’s, etc. as 3-D sculpture with the copper-enamel. This combined with his love for antiques & found objects, makes for a very interesting mixed media artform.
Denny has been represented in galleries for 13yrs. and has been selling at juried craft shows for 8yrs.
In 2001 he won Best of Show at University Place Fest in Charlotte, NC. In 2004 he won Best of Show for Mixed Media in the Lazy Daze Show in Cary, NC. Also, in 2004 he won Best of Category for Master Craft at Matthews Art Fest in Matthews, NC.
He was highlighted by the Gilmore Craftsmen's Classic Art Show on the NBC affiliate WXII Channel 12 Television in Greensboro, NC on April 13, 2007.
Denny also completed a Fountain commission for the Wilton Connor Corporation on Westinghouse Blvd. in Charlotte, NC. The building is now owned by Weyerhauser. Below are photos of the commissioned copper bowl fountain seen (on left) as the fountain in it's entirety, and (on right) a close-up of the commissioned copper bowl.
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Copyright © 2005 Artrageousfolk [DBA Maloney's Art & Antiques]. All
rights reserved.
Revised: May 03, 2007.
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