Nadja Zerunian

co/rizom is an NGO committed to the future of craft. We are currently working with 47 artisans in 8 countries and invest in traditional craft to empower the communities who make them.

Victor Clopotar is a ‘calderar’, a Roma coppersmith. It’s a dying art, and Victor is one of few left. He learned how to forge trays and pitchers from his ancestors and hopes that his son will one day take his place. After all, “people die, but they don’t vanish into thin air, they leave something behind for the next generations,” says the 40 -year-old.

Victor has been working with co/rizom to transform his products. In the beginning, traditional pieces were stripped of their rustic elements, but through his skill, many common ideas soon materialised. “His talent is phenomenal – not only his three-dimensional imagination, but also his unconditional accuracy.”

As he sits down to work, Victor pushes the limits of his own skill. A copper sheet has warmed over the fire, and with hammer and anvil, he will transform it into softly curved objects. Again and again he will bring his workpiece back to the fire to make it ‘malleable like clay’. This process may have to be repeated up to 70 times, because much of what Victor makes takes thousands of strokes to become what he considers finished.

Materials: copper / polished / gold plated.