During my exchange semester at San Diego State University, I had the chance to take a jewelry and metals class. As I've never done any soldering or worked with any jewelry metals in the past, this was a very awesome learning experience. We learned everything from soldering joints and hinges to annealing and finishing with patina.  

This project's brief was to create a box for something intangible. The intangible thing could be anything of our choosing so I chose freedom. The piece is 3x3x3 inches and constructed out of one flat sheet of copper. The hinges are hand made as well as the etched patterns using PNP transfer method. The finish was done with a sulfur patina in which I used an abrasive pad to slightly reveal the underlying copper color. 

The general inspiration of this piece was to communicate what freedom means to me which is to able to have privacy, then open up, spread your wings and enjoy the world that we live in. To do communicate this I wanted to display my box as a plain cube but when opened up, it extends more than expected. The two facades flatten out and display a topographic map-like pattern contrasting against the birds that are etched onto the back and two sides. These patterns were simply meant to communicate nature and the beauty that it has to offer!