why I love copper: a prelude to a new "dreaming in copper" series

I think it's safe to say that I love copper. you might even say that I'm borderline obsessed with it. I try to hide it, but it's hard when chris is also a copper nut. I guess that's what happens when you both work at a copper mine.

I love the metallic, antique look of copper. I love how malleable it is and how you can shape it into virtually anything. I love how it changes different colors when different chemicals are applied. I love how it oxidizes to a green color. I love how it is a deep blue when concentrated in acidic solution. I love how light it typically is. I love how you can practically use it for anything - from electrical to fashion. I love the way it sounds for a dog's name (like in the fox and the hound!). I love the process in which it is extracted and made. It is truly an amazing metal.

the final product of a copper mine
(aka a bundle of copper cathodes)

native copper

native copper

where I work, I see the final product of the copper mine every day. I see it go from being a mineral in a rock, to a solution, to a big slab of copper (which is what we make in my department). (in technical terms, that's from the leaching, to solvent extraction, or SX, to electrowinning, or EW - I specifically work in the EW.) for chris and I, 2 of our 3 summer internships in college were at copper mines so we have a personal attachment to the metal. our first internship was one that we got lucky in getting (well, chris got lucky & used his charming talking skills to get me in). we spent most of the summer going around the mine collecting native copper in the berms (berms are what they call big piles of dirt that line the road to stop/slow you from going off the side of a bench/cliff). we definitely took that internship for granted because (1) we soon realized that interns are not normally allowed to drive around a mine without supervision or proper training and (2) native copper is not normally found anywhere. now we have so much native copper lying around our house and our parents' houses (because we had so much we started giving them away, which now we don't since it's so rare). 

every time we see something made of copper or copper plated or made to look copperish at the store, chris and I get waaaay overly excited. we have to fight the urge to buy anything and everything copper. it's something we both can connect on, as sad as that sounds, because we both love copper so much. our family and friends are aware of our copper obsession admiration and point out copper stuff they find. I've always wanted a beagle that I can name copper. for a while I wanted my wedding color to be copper (until I found how difficult it is to find copper colored bridesmaid dresses). chris named our internet server CopperHouse. even the downstairs of our house has a copper theme.

this lady that lives in colorado does these amazing art pieces for the corporate offices of company we work for and we just had to get one. she applies different chemicals to a sheet of copper and swirls it around to make different designs. depending on the temperature also depends on what color some of the chemicals make the copper. we have this hanging in our dining area and it looks so amazing.

chris's mom got this for us. it's some old copper tub of some sorts that we have in our living room next to our tv. we use it to store the dogs' toys.

chris mom also got us these and we placed them on our tv table on either sides of the tv.










other copper or copper looking things I/we own:

they give these copper coffee mugs to new employees in my department so I was pretty stoked when I became a new employee. I use it for hot tea though.

I got the key chain from a career fair the year after we interned at asarco. it's the shape of a copper anode which are made at the smelter. (we make copper cathodes where I work.) for the longest time it was the only key chain I had with my keys (I don't like a lot of crap on my keys) - that is until I got my suns sixth man key chain. :)

we saw this wall hanging thing at a little store in a little town in pennsylvania when we were visiting chris's grandma in new york over the summer. the lid flips open to revel little hooks. we didn't know what it was used for but chris thought it would be a good idea to store our keys in it because no one would be able to know what it is. we later found a tag on it that called it a "key holder" - he was pretty heartbroken he didn't come up with the brilliant idea.