Stripping for money, Stripping for fun

Last week when the electricians were finished the floor was littered with excess electrical wire. Inside the little stringy nuggets of plastic? Feet and feet of copper wire. For those of you who don't trade commodities on a daily basis: that shit is worth alot of money these days. Actually, around here people are so poor they will strip the copper from key mechanical/electrical units in schoolhouses and the like to sell the copper for a hefty (albeit karmically-jinxed) profit. Which of course makes it one of the leading stories on the nightly faux-news (shout out Bruce Frisko). So last weekend, on our "weekend off", I gathered up all the plastic-covered wires and spent a soothing few hours stripping the plastic to expose the copper with the intent of bringing it to the scrap metal place. What a beautiful metal! If it weren't so bloody expensive, I would definitely litter my house with sculptures of the stuff.

The empty, empty husks went in the trash-box:





And I wound the copper around my fingers & flung 'em in this cardboard box to bring home:


Pretty, non?

Between our bouts of "movie marathon-ing", we became engrossed. Copper is so beautiful! We started off by twisting it around pens and pencils to make super tight spirals that looked like springs. But once the pair of needle-nosed pliers were introduced, it evolved quickly. Our creations:

Mine was a semi-3D hummingbird and flower. It was exceedingly difficult to get good pictures, but there are a couple below. One from below looking up, one from the side looking down, and one straight on.





Different angle/different light:

His was a more straight forward (and definitely 3D) CopperPiggy.




Unfortunately, they're still headed to the scrap metal heap, but at least some metal worker will get a kick out of them. Rest in peace, CopperPiggy.