The reduction flame takes the oxidation right off.” "It is erasing the color so you can start over again and reducing it so you can get shapes and patterns. “The reduction flame is reducing the oxidation that is caused by the heat," she says. She describes how they us the reduction flame to draw the shapes and patterns on copper. “With copper you can get fifteen different colors.” You get more colors with copper and we get shapes and patterns, but you can’t get that on other metals,” she says. “You can flame color other metals a little bit, but you won’t get as many colors. Racheal discussed her preference for working with copper. They also sell their work at the Ozark Folk Center. As master craftsman in the fine craft sector, they attend seven shows annually. Their work is primarily sold at fine art and craft shows under their business name, Copper Colorists.
The center serves as their home base and the location of their primary studio, where visitors can watch them create their works of copper art. Now, he and his wife, Racheal, who has also been flame painting for 16 years, enjoy teaching the process to others at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. That’s what it does, but to get control over it is another story.” Anybody can get color with heating copper. "He is the first one to separate them into little shapes and colors. “He is called the father of flame painting because he is the first one to get control over the colors that are natural when you heat copper,” says his wife, Racheal. In total, he made 15,000 butterflies during his decade-long dedication to mastering the process.įlame Painter Skip Mathews at work. “That is when I went from calling myself a copper colorist to a flame painter because I was able to create contrast and composition with the flame,” he says.
#PANNING UP AND DOWN IN FLAME PAINTER HOW TO#
Six years into his experimentation process, he figured out how to create patterns in specific colors on the copper. Initially I thought I could only do one color.” “When I saw I was able to create patterns - that just sort of opened up all sorts of things. “In the beginning, I had no idea that patterns were even possible,” he says.
"Fifteen years later, I finally realized it was the reduction part of my torch. I promised myself for the next ten years I would make nothing but butterflies to perfect the process."Īlong the way, he made another discovery. “Whenever I would solder, there would always be these colors around these solder marks," he says. Soon, he had a realization that would change his artistic career. Then, I progressed on with the copper and began doing jewelry,” he says. “When I left the University, I started with a candle company, making copper clad candles. "Luckily, I didn’t have the money to be a potter." “I had the choice in college of being a potter or a metalsmith," he says. Skip Mathews made a decision during his college studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson, that shaped his artistic journey as a coppersmith for the last 50 years. Flame Painting by Skip and Racheal Mathews.
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