From Burst Copper Pipe to Phoenix Brooch a Tale of Rebirth

On February 14, 2021, the state of Texas was hit by a devastatingly cold weather front, the likes of which had not been seen or felt in many decades. Millions of people across Texas lost power and the ability to heat their homes. The cold snap lasted for several days as did the power outages. My mother was an unfortunate victim of this severe weather and so were her copper pipes. About 5 days into the storm one of the pipes above her kitchen burst. By the time my brother and I arrived at her home the kitchen was completely flooded. Water was pouring from the ceiling on to her cabinets and on to her counter tops, the kitchen was ruined. We were able to turn off the water main and stop the water, but it was clear that the kitchen would have to be completely gutted and redone. We would come to learn that my mother was not the only person affected by ruptured pipes, the whole state had experienced tremendous losses due to pipes freezing and then bursting.

The next hurdle we faced was finding a repair man to fix the pipe. This turned out to be extremely difficult as everyone was booked and when I was able to get a repair man on the phone, he quoted me $500 to repair the one pipe. So instead, I decided to make the repair myself and as a souvenir I kept the piece of burst pipe that I replaced. And it is with that piece of copper pipe that I decided to make a brooch in the form of a phoenix. The phoenix signifies rebirth or a renewal and I plan to give my mother this brooch for her birthday which is coming up in January.

It was a difficult time for my mother she had to move out until the repairs were made. To make a long story, longer I was not able to find a person to renovate her kitchen, so my brother and I decided to perform the renovation ourselves. It took us 3 months to fully renovate the kitchen. It would have been shorter but delays in things like cabinets and appliances due to Covid supply chain issues prolonged the process.

In this Instructable I will demonstrate how I went about making a brooch from a copper pipe.

Cooper pipe or copper sheet

Card Stock

Pencil

Ruler

Utility knife

X-acto razor blade

Marker

Hacksaw

Bench vise

Rubber mallet

Needle nose pliers

Sandpaper

Files

Blow torch

Glue stick

Spray Paint

Clamps

Jeweler's Bench Pin

Jeweler's saw

Solder

Flux

Dremel w/sanding accessories

Bar pin hardware

5-minute epoxy

My mother actually ended up having two pipes burst in her kitchen. After I repaired the first leak, I turned the water back on and about 5 minutes later another pipe burst. So that's why I have to sections of pipes with holes in them.

The first thing you need to do is find out what size phoenix you can make from a 1/2-inch pipe. So, I took a piece of card stock and wrapped it around the copper pipe and marked were it starts to overlap on to itself. Then I laid the card stock flat and cut off that section off. This will be the size of my canvas, so to speak. I wrapped the card stock back around the copper pipe just to make sure its the correct size.

I don't know how to draw, so I cut several pieces of paper in case I need to draw more than one. After several sketches I eventually drew a version that I liked. You can see in the last picture, my progression and what I ended up deciding to go with after all.

I placed my sketch over the copper pipe and marked the length. Then I took the pipe over to my portable bandsaw table and cut the pipe, you could also do this step with a hacksaw.

Now I had to split the pipe down a seam. In order to do this I clamped the pipe in my bench vise and using a hacksaw I cut down the length of one side of the pipe. Take your time doing this and begin your cut at a steep angle on one edge and slowly drop your angle down as you cut. I found this allowed for more control and a somewhat straighter cut.

Now it was time to flatten the pipe. I used some needle nose pliers to begin prying the pipe open a little at a time switching from one side to the other. Once it was opened up enough, I clamped the copper pipe in my vise and opened it up further. Then using my vise, I straightened the copper by placing the piece in the jaws and tightening the vise to flatten out the piece as best I could. This got the piece mostly flat. It was still rough though.

Next I took my rubber mallet and hammered the copper until it was as flat as I could get it. I didn't use a hammer because I didn't want to further dent the copper.

I used a blowtorch to clean up the copper. I heated it until the solder dripped off then once it cooled, I sanded the front and back with 220 grit to remove any of the residue left behind from the torch.

Next, I used my X-acto razor blade to cut out the shape of the phoenix from the card stock and using a glue stick I glued it to the copper.

Once the glue dried, I spray painted the entire piece black. I set it aside to dry for about an hour, then I removed the paper to reveal my stencil and cut lines.

I took a scrap of 3/4 inch plywood and made a Jewelers Bench Pin which I temporarily attached to my bench using some clamps. I used a Jeweler's saw to cut out the pattern as best I could. It's my first time making something like this, so it was a little bit of a learning curve. My main take away from this process was to go slow and let the saw do the work, too much pressure and the blade will snap. After about 40-45 minutes of sawing, I freed the phoenix from the copper.

Next, I sanded and filed the edges of the phoenix to try and clean up my cut lines. I used 220 grit sandpaper for this part.

I decided that I wanted to add some silver accents to the phoenix just to give it a little more dimension. So, I used a blow torch and some flux and soldering wire to add bits and pieces of silver along the edges of the wings and tail. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for but in the end, it did add some visual interest and I thought it was quite fitting to have some solder on the copper.

Next, I sanded the piece again and used my rotary tool with a mini drum sander to clean off the excess solder. Then working my way through the grits, I sanded the piece from 150 grit up to 2000 grit.

Lastly, I used some 5-minute epoxy to attach the bar pin to the back of the brooch. I let the dry overnight.

Here is the finished piece. For the most part it turned out okay. If I were to do this again, I would use a thicker piece of copper as the copper pipe wall is not very thick. And I would probably make my life a little easier and just use flat stock instead. In the future I would like to experiment with adding decorative solder to copper. This little experiment gave me some ideas of how I may be able to mimic Mokume Gane without having to actually forge weld Nickel and Copper. Thanks for reading and I hope you find this Instructable informative and maybe even a little inspiring.