Copper And Sunflowers

Today we travelled fifteen minutes from home to a small company that sits in the mountains of Botetourt County.

This is a company I knew nothing about until I found mention of it on the Beaver Dam Farm's Facebook page.

It is a small company that will be one of the vendors at the Beaver Dam's second annual Sunflower Festival which is being held the week-end of September 9th and 10th.  If you live in Virginia and are looking for an outdoor way to spend a week-end, you may want to visit the festival.  Lovely people. Fabulous sunflowers!

I snapped this photo at last year's festival.... the First Annual Beaver Dam Sunflower Festival.

Now.... back to our drive this morning....

We drove fifteen minutes to visit Caldwell Mountain Copper.

For the past few years we have had a 'copper plated' compost container on our kitchen counter that we purchased from a local retailer, and the copper plating is chipping and wearing off, so we decided to see about having a similar container made by this local copper smith. It's my understanding that there are only a handful of coppersmiths in the U.S., so we felt rather honored to speak with Elliot Muncey who learned the trade from Porter Caldwell.

This is a family business, and they make special order pieces to your specifications.

Copper is NOT inexpensive, so having something made may not be your cup of tea when it comes to the pocketbook, but these pieces are forever and will be items you will want to pass down through your family.

Our piece will not be started until mid-September, so we look forward to seeing how it looks when completed.

Here is the link to their website which has a video of them doing their copper work.

AND

Here is a video I made last year at the Beaver Dam Farm's Sunflower Festival.

If you get the chance, pay them a visit this year.
There will be acres and acres of sunflowers, and also vendors this year.
I'm going to be there!