Vermont Flannel

THE MAKER PROJECT

Meet the Maker

Liam Tower, Copper Maker

“I always figured,” said Liam Tower, founder and owner of Vermont Copper, “that the only way to learn how to do something for me is action. So that means me actually doing it.”

Liam does his making out of a large, high-ceilinged workshop on his family’s property in Berkshire, a town of about 1500 that has the US-Canada border as its northern boundary. The property is “about three miles away as the crow flies,” he said, from where he was born and raised.

Liam is tall and easy-going, with the crushing grip and terse, sure-footed speaking style of someone who spends lots of time working outdoors.

He has spent years creating and installing slate and copper roofing, which often “entailed doing cornice work or different finials and stuff like that.” Which is what got him into tinkering with making other things in copper, from copper flasks to watering cans to Moscow Mule mugs.

“In high school,” Liam said, “I loved art… But I never really felt like I was someone that would draw or sketch or anything, although I do have the ability to do that. That wasn't my form. I guess the form was using my hands and then having something in the end that was a physical structure versus something that was on plain paper.”

Then, a few years ago, because he was sharing his creative copper work online, Liam was approached by a company that asked him to make a copper flask. With the help of some friends, he said “we were able to produce that flask in such a way that it was actually a better product than what they had sent us. And that started our first venture into making products, which actually was an order of a thousand units right off the bat.”

Working with copper is a bit challenging, Liam said, because it is a very costly raw material, which means you have to purchase it in large quantities in order to get the price of the finished product to where it needs to be. “If you don't get the volume,” Liam said, “it's a little hard to kind of get to the price point that any consumer can afford.” And that needs to be balanced off with keeping the right level of pre-made, finished products in hand to be able to fulfill sales.

“That means me actually doing it.”

Soft and malleable, but also very strong when properly reinforced, copper is a joy to work with, Liam said. “There’s so many different variations of patinas and coloring that can happen in the copper, that you just feel it. As you're working with it, you'll put a fingerprint on it and that will show up over time... you kind of relate to the material a little bit more than everyday metal.”

What Liam said he loves most about making is “the fact that in the end, the product is in someone's hand being used day by day.” He enjoys the historical restoration work that his other company does, but “it's something people see but they can't physically touch. So, the aspect of getting to hold it, to use it day by day – whether it's a beer stein or a copper flask or shot glass – it's something that's in action.”

The biggest challenge he has as a maker, Liam said, is that “people have a mindset that to make things cheap, they need to be made in other countries sometimes. And that's not really what Vermont Copper is about or what Vermont is about. It's about making things here and enjoying it and creating a family atmosphere that allows you to do so.”

“So the challenge is making that happen and helping people to see the importance of that craft versus, I hate to say it, but an Amazon order. Many people think that that's the only way to get things nowadays. And it steers them away from seeing real craftsmanship and then also caring about what they buy. Because when you know that this was handmade by someone, it's going to be something that you're going to cherish. It's going to be more of like, I want to say like an heirloom idea or product. And that really is what I'm trying to drive home. And that's really the same with all my businesses: we look for quality because we want longevity.”