Texture and Tactile Surfaces - Part 1
- Details
- Parent Category: Projects from Journal Back Copies
- Category: Projects 2001
Kathleen Kay
So, what is copper shim? Sometimes called foil, sometimes sheet, for our purposes it's a strong but soft, malleable metal which we can cut with scissors, texture, form and, of course, enamel thus making it stronger.
Copper sheet is available in many thicknesses; any technically minded enameller might first rummage in their make-up bag or pocket for the micrometer to check the thickness of the copper, which might be sold in Imperial thous., metric points of a millimetre or Standard Wire Gauge. To give a clue to the confused, a fairly small copper blank, which a catalogue will tell us is 22 gauge, roughly translates to 27 thou. or 0.7 millimetre thickness. Copper blanks of 20 gauge are thicker, at 0.9 mm.