Copper: building character with use

I made a limited edition run of 10 solid copper Alphas, and people often ask me why I would do such a thing. First, because it's awesome. If you've never held a pound of copper in your hand, it's pretty impressive...like the first time you lift a gold bar. Okay, that one's still on the bucket list. You might consider a copper Alpha as a baby step.

Stage 1: a nice patina from people handling the light

Seriously though, many collectors like copper lights because they tarnish very easily and develop a patina that is unique to their owner and patterns of use. I think it's strongly related to the Japanese aesthetic of "wabi sabi." Other than being fun to say, the concept revolves around finding beauty in impermanence and imperfection. Objects that show their history are capable of a dialogue that more permanent objects are not.

The nice thing about copper is that you can also clean the slate and start over from new: enter Nevr-Dull!

I used to use this stuff to polish printing plates back when I was doing...you guessed it...print making. It's a cotton gauze loaded with some sort of delicious (if you are a mechanic) smelling secret sauce. It's nice because it has no abrasive qualities at all and will polish the pants of anything that is metal.

Stage 2: buffing out the head

It works amazingly quickly and doesn't even require any real pressure. Polishing the head took maybe one minute. If the item is heavily tarnished you'll need to wipe it down with a clean rag to get the layer of residue off, then back to the Nevr-Dull.

Stage 3: viola! That's what I call...um...shiny. 

Give me another minute, okay two, and we have this Alpha back to looking brilliant and new. The shine isn't quite as perfect as when it was first machined, but you can use some more elbow grease and get an even better polish. Not bad though, right?