It is very easy to create beautiful three dimensional copper wall art from a two dimensional sheet of copper. You just need time, a little patience and nerves of steel to make sure you hit the copper in just the right places in order to create a pattern.
Instructions
1. Take a thin sheet of copper sheeting, which is usually sold rolled up in the package and stretch a section out on a wooden board. Nail each of the four corners to the board, leaving the middle section of the copper sheeting raised up above the board a little bit.
2. Choose a design and draw it on a sheet of copper with a pencil. This design can be very simple or quite elaborate. Use a photograph or drawing as your pattern and erase as needed to become satisfied with your design. A simple design is actually best with this sort of artwork, as a more cluttered one will make the details more difficult to view later on.
3. Choose a carving tool and punch it into the surface of the copper. The soft metal has a lot of give to it so it will bend when you punch it. Punch too hard, in fact, and you will break right through the copper. This is an undesirable effect so be careful and try to maintain a steady grip on the carving tool. Try to punch around your pattern, so that the main subject of your design will come out away from the board in a three-dimensional fashion while the background recedes into the flat surface.
4. Carve stripes into the design by using the edge of a flat tool and gently punching downward into the copper. Align the second punch on the same stripe as the first one, continuing on until you have achieved the desired look. To make texture resembling grass in the background, merely use a flat edged tool and punch it into the copper vertically here and there to make it look as if there is grass in the picture.
5. Carve background detail by punching a blunt ended instrument into the copper multiple times, creating small dings in the sheeting which will eventually resemble rocks, pebbles and other details that form the background images in photographs and paintings. This is also good for creating the texture of soil, gravel or even wood grain in a log or tree trunk, if you use a tool with a small enough point.
