Let me be clear: Mr. Zazzy Fish is etched.
The Back Story:
I need to back up. In case you were wondering, he’s not drawn freehand from my imagination and hand-chiseled into metal. And I didn’t buy him. In fact, found him in a book. And copied his picture. Legally.
He was simply a black and white fish, and I thought he’d be much more handsome in color. So I etched him onto copper because copper can be made to reveal many colors.
Simply put, etching is the use of acid to create an image on metal. The image is inked onto the metal with a “resist” material. When the metal is lain in the acid solution (for hours), the acid “eats” around the resist and into the rest of the metal. When done, the image has a real dimension that stands up and off the metal. Lightly running a thumb over Mr. Zazzy Fish gives up a lot of texture, even with my cotton work gloves on. I like that.
Now, onto the colors part of this story.
Copper itself is pretty, even when it turns on its own. But I wanted to bring out jewel tone colors that appear when copper is heated under a flame to a certain point. The problem is you don’t know when that point comes until you nearly pass it. The coloring is a chemical process that occurs when the copper, air, and everything in the air, come together. The process is hit or miss, with misses ending in unsavory gray colors. And believe me, I missed and started over quite a few times until I got the magenta and blue tones to stay.
But all that was months ago. Truth be told, Mr. Zazzy Fish sat in my studio, layered between sheets of copper, laying in wait. He was a work of art holding out for a project.
And that’s where my design comes in.
Mr. Zazzy Fish goes on to become a piece of wearable art (aka jewelry)!
But … there is more to this fish than meets the eye. He has an interesting interior architecture, one that is reminiscent of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. We’ll see Mr. Zazzy Fish’s “before and after” sides.
He’ll have to spin so that you can admire both sides (I’m working on that). And all this to be completed for the May 6th art show submission deadline!
Next Time: Mr. Zazzy Fish gets his sterling silver bones.
Thank you, as always, for listening to my stories.
Margaret 
P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy following the Mr. Zazzy Fish story? Please share it with them. Thank you!
