About the Craftsman
I have thirty years of experience as an architectural coppersmith that includes the creation of thousand of dormers, bay windows, cupelas, finials, and many other fine projects in the Oklahoma City area. Several of my finial designs are featured at Fox Building Supply stores in the surrounding area.I began my metal working career just out of high school. My cousin Lola Clayton and her husband, Bill, had a seamless gutter company and I went to work for them when I was nineteen. After a couple of years of installing gutters, Bill who was a journeyman sheet metal mechanic, worked his way into architctural sheet metal, with me going along for the ride. We specialized in standing seam roofing, parapet cap, and flashing. This is also when we began building residential copper bay window roofs.
I really enjoyed working with copper and fell in love with the beautiful finished products. So much so, that in 1985, I started my own copper business. At the time of my inital launch of my business, the Dallas-style home was highly popular and the biggest majoriy of those built had the copper bay windows. I continued my copper business for approximately ten years before I stepped back and took a break from my trade to branch out and become a home builder. After eight years working as a home building contractor, thirty well built homes, and a lot of stress, I decided that copper work was where I belonged. I made a commitment to myself and my clients to be the best coppersmith possible. Instead of jumping back into my own business, I worked for a time with Russell Schwartz, who I had helped get started in the copper business. Russell's lead shop man was David Hammond, who gave me immense knowledge in the layout and fabrication of copper work.
Finally, in the spring of 2008, I opened 802 Copper Shoppe which is also the year the nation went into a deep recession, but I did not give up and we are still here today. We even brached out to work at Silver Dollar City in 2011 for a period of time. In the end, 802 Copper Shoppe is here to stay and we continue to build and customize your fine works of art.