Copper Lighting and Sculpture Art

Working in the landscape industry in the 90’s, building water gardens with natural stone, I spent virtually all my time working with gardening ideas. In the summer of 1999, we built a five foot deep swimming pond in our farm yard between the house and the big red barn that is now my art studio.

My name is Lowell Pajari. I didn’t do this 400 hour project alone. My wife, Kate, and ten year old granddaughter were digging with shovels, carrying rocks, planting flowers and carrying the load. It was a group effort.

When it was finished, with two ponds, a stream, and three waterfalls running, it was time to start enjoying it.

I would come home from work toward dusk and soon it was too dark to enjoy the garden. So over the winter I began looking for landscape lighting that would look natural and complement the organic look of a water garden. Was I disappointed? Yes, I was. Nothing seemed to blend.

My wife said, “get some copper sheeting and make some lighting.” There was an Amaryllis in the kitchen window and I thought I would try replicate it. My effort didn’t turn out to be an Amaryllis but it became the Single Nodding Peony, the first lamp of our line of Lighting today. Someone wanted to buy it, so I knew I was onto something. A picture of the Single Nodding Peony is in the Accent Lighting category.

This is a self-taught skill. It was a huge learning curve especially the first couple years. There was a lot of design work trying to develop new functional and attractive styles. I drew patterns by hand and cut with a sheet metal shears. I had never worked with metal beyond high school shop.

Sculptured Accent Lighting is a great alternative to adding Fine Art Sculpture to the landscape. Our Accent Lighting creates a focal point, day or night that welcomes visitors and inspires conversation. You will be flattered by the reaction and comments made by your friends when they see the beautiful look of Copper Sculptured Lighting. Besides being attractive it’s functional and a fraction of the cost of Fine Art Sculpture.

The next phase in product development was making Fine Art Copper Sculpture.

Wildlife Sculpture is requested most often while more contemporary sculpture ideas come from people who want a remembrance or a reflection into something more personal.

Making Fine Art Sculpture is time consuming. It’s hard to estimate time because, in the case of wildlife, the species must be identifiable. For Contemporary Sculpture, the goal is to replicate the picture I receive from my client.

From a photograph or drawing the process begins by creating a pattern on the computer in a one dimensional image that can be worked into a three dimensional structure. The image has to be broken visually into sections that are than cut and are later brazed together. All the parts are cut in a mirror image. As the sculpture develops there is the process of stretching the copper, shrinking areas, building up some areas and grinding the welds. The sculpture is ready to mount on a base made to fit a pillar top, for instance, or be designed for other applications. I name, date and sign my Fine Art Sculptures. The Sculpture can be sealed with a UV resistant fixative, or left to patina naturally. Even UV resistant sprays won’t last forever outside.

We welcome retail and contractor inquiries and hope you enjoy our copper lighting and sculpture art!