New Artwork Emerges From An Old Interest

The newest exhibition to open at C.H. Booth Library in the lower level display cases offers a look at what a former Newtown resident has been up to, part-time, since moving with his wife to Roxbury a few years ago.

“Under the Sea, Over the Snow” is a collection of “fish flowers” and “reef fish” created from copper alloys and wood, and small scale models of Flexible Flyer and Clipper sleds done in nickel silver. They are the handiwork of Dick Van Riper, and are on view until at least the end of February.

The fish are made two ways. The first is done by coloring thin sheets of copper or copper alloys with heat, and then cutting out the fish shapes from the “most interestingly colored areas,” said Mr Van Riper. “My inspiration for these comes from many delightful hours snorkeling in the Caribbean observing fascinatingly beautiful reef fish.”

The second method of making fish is to cut the shapes out from thick sheets of variously colored copper alloys and then polishing them to a mirror finish.

“The bulk of these sheets of metal come from sample books brass salesmen like my father used to carry to customers to show them the range of colors available in copper alloys,” Mr Van Riper explained.

Mr Van Riper has been in sales in the brass and copper industry for 48 years, the first 28 with the former American Brass Co. in Waterbury and the last 20 on his own, running a one-man business from his home office.

“The commute is great so I’ll probably stay with it for a while longer,” he recently joked.

While working for The American Brass Co. (the fourth generation in his family to do so), Mr Van Riper collected a wide variety of scraps and rejects from trips to customer plants. It was during this time that he also began to appreciate the beauty of copper alloys.

Back to creating the fish: After they are cut from the copper, Mr Van Riper fastens them to stems of small diameter tubing and then mounts them onto a piece of wood, “as you would do a flower arrangement.”

He has been creating these fish off and on since at least the late 1960s. At that time Mr Van Riper and his wife, Mary, were living outside of Atlanta. That was when he began making ornaments for a gift shop on Cape Hatteras, N.C., using the same process for coloring the fish that he continues to use today.

“After that I merged my keen interest in model planes with the beauty of nickel silver and made small scale models of the Wrights Brothers’ gliders and 1903 Flyer, mounting them, appropriately, on driftwood from Cape Hatteras beaches,” he said. “Local pilots loved them.”

The Van Ripers lived in and enjoyed Newtown for 24 years, from 1975 until 1999. All three of their children graduated from Newtown High and consider Newtown home.

The Van Ripers moved to Roxbury five years ago, intending to retire but it has not happened yet.

Mrs Van Riper retired from her relocation consulting business two years ago, and is now busy helping Roxbury on its Conservation Commission.

The couple does a lot of walking on the dirt road they live on, and they often use those outings to find new and interesting pieces of wood to incorporate into Mr Van Riper’s crafts.

They have also made a number of trips to New Zealand, where their daughter Sue and her family live. “We visited New Zealand for the seventh time this past fall to visit our daughter and her family and found great pieces of Remu driftwood and gorgeous stones on a beach near their home,” said Mr Van Riper. “Happily, they’ve found their way into some of my recent work.”

The second half of the Booth Library exhibition’s name — “Over the Snow” — refers to sleds Mr Van Riper creates that are done on a 1/12-inch scale. The sleds are made entirely of nickel silver, which is an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel.

Interestingly, nickel silver is actually a white metal that polishes to resemble silver. “There is no silver in the alloy,” said Mr Van Riper.

The clipper sleds in the collection are modeled after the first sleds made by Henry Morton in 1880 in West Sumner, Maine.

Unlike the previous sleds that were larger, heavier and more cumbersome, and therefore unsuited for recreation (they were used for moving goods around a farm and to the market), says Mr Van Riper, “Morton’s sled was made of local hardwood built low to the ground and had polished wooden runners. It was great for ‘belly flopping’ and became a must-have item for the children of the day.”

About five years later, Samuel Allen improved upon Mr Morton’s design by creating a sled whose design featured flexible steel runners and a steering bar. This allowed the sleds to be steered by their occupants, and greatly cut down on the “wet shoes and worn out toes resulting from trying to steer the clippers by dragging one foot or another,” Mr Van Riper explained.

Mr Allen’s design was patented in 1889, and The S.L. Allen Co. was launched. The Flexible Flyer sleds Mr Van Riper makes are scale models of the smallest Flexible Flyers still in production today, the 36-inch models.

Each sled is handmade and takes Mr Van Riper about four hours to complete.

His most used tools, for either project, include a jeweler’s saw, a mini torch, and a buffing wheel.

A few years ago Brookfield Craft Center put a number of Mr Van Riper’s sleds into its major holiday exhibition, a five-week show and sale of handmade, designer quality, and functional artwork by artisans from across the country.

“Their contributors have amazing skills,” said Mr Van Riper. “I felt lucky to be included. It was a real energizer.”

The joy of building with his hands traces easily back to Mr Van Riper’s childhood.

“As a youngster in Waterbury I loved anything that could be put together, taken apart, and put back together again,” said Mr Van Riper. “Well, sometimes they went back together…

“First it was Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, then an Erector Set, American Flyer trains, and finally balsa wood model airplanes. I loved to work with my hands. I’m sure it was an escape from homework.”

 Today that love has become “just a lot of time-consuming hand labor which I enjoy immensely.”