This past weekend I traveled to Ennis, Texas to visit my parents. While I was there, my mom and I went to the Ennis Auction House on Saturday to see if we could find any goodies. I had picked out several items ahead of time, including some antique ginger jars and large pieces of antique furniture, but unfortunately most of them went for way more than my tiny budget would allow.
I did have a surprise find, however, in the form of some antique copper art pieces. From some brief research I have found that these pieces of art are made with a technique called “repousse”, where shapes are pressed into a sheet of metal. I thought they were interesting and unique, so I decided to put in a low bid on them. To my surprise I won the pair for $50!
Here’s one of the pieces in its original frame:
I really didn’t like the frames, but I knew this could be easily fixed. I bought two 16×20 frames at Hobby Lobby on sale for half price, and two 11×14 white mats to put in the frames. My total was $66, which I’m sure could have been less had I had a coupon.
After taking the old frames apart and carefully removing the copper sheets (they are surprisingly fragile!), I placed them in their new frames and secured the corners with some blue painter’s tape.
Here’s the first piece finished:
And the pair:
I haven’t decided yet where I’m going to put these two pieces, possibly the dining room or in one of my guest rooms. I’m kind of thinking about going with a modern take on an Art Deco theme for one of the bedrooms, to incorporate these copper pieces.
So my next steps are to finish painting the two guest bedrooms, order mattresses for the beds, and find a few more pieces of furniture to pull them together!
jordanpluskate 