Elevating copper with crystals
- Willow favours waste copper sourced from Bristol's scrapyards
- His practice fuses traditional metalworking with an experimental approach
- He works with electrocrystallisation to grow faceted crystals on the metal's surface
Willow Bloomfield transforms reclaimed metals, mainly copper, into sculptural vessels and lighting. Based in Bristol, he works with hammers, anvils and stakes, and keeps centuries-old techniques alive. Willow's journey with metal began at 17 years old, when he attended a furniture making course at Community Tech College in Hereford, on his mother's encouragement. This experience ignited a passion that led to an apprenticeship and a degree at Kingston School of Art. After graduation, Willow worked in several design jobs whilst making jewellery at home in his spare time. A Building Arts Programme in 2022 introduced him to blacksmithing and coppersmithing, and opened the door to working with several metalsmiths, including celebrated master Junko Mori. Willow's goal is to shed light on the circularity of copper and raise questions about people's relationship to materials.
INTERVIEW
I practised jewellery making as a hobby while I worked in design with digital work and CNC machines. I wanted to get back to my love of materials, and the power of handmaking. I tried many crafts during my training, but metalworking is kinetic and analogue in a way that I love.
Coppersmithing is on the UK's Red List of endangered crafts. Historically, it was the working-class metal. Today, antique copper jugs and embossed plates are out of fashion, and essentially worth scrap price. I want to bring artistic merit back to this material that has been discarded and undervalued.
I work with the electrocrystallisation technique, through which I immerse my pieces in a solution with a low electrical current to grow faceted crystals on the metal's surface. There is an intentionality in shaping the object by hand, but by playing with the variables of this industrial technique, an unpredictable, natural growth happens.
As a society, we are divorced from natural materials. I am working on three large scale vessels to highlight the circularity of copper, and to invite people to reflect on our relationship to metal. I am also planning a research project with a friend doing her PhD on metal circularity.
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