Austin, TX & Santa Clara del Cobre · Est. 1997 · Founded by Jonathan Beall
Founded in 1997 by Jonathan Beall, who stumbled onto Mexican coppersmithing on the side of a road in Michoacán. Today Sertodo is a cooperative of master artisans working between Austin and Santa Clara del Cobre, a village with an unbroken thousand-year copper tradition. Every piece hand-hammered from recycled copper. Made to last lifetimes.
In 1997, Jonathan Beall got laid off from a dot-com job in Austin and spent his severance camping on Mexican beaches. One morning, on the side of a road, he saw a man pulling copper out of the back of a truck. He picked up a hammered vase. It felt right in his hands. He bought everything the man had and drove back to Austin.
A few years later, Beall moved to Santa Clara del Cobre, a small village high in the Sierra Madres where the copper tradition goes back over a thousand years. He apprenticed with the maestro Maximo Velázquez Correa, forging hundreds of nails and hammers before he was trusted to make a pot. When Maximo's eldest son Martin became a partner, they opened the first Sertodo workshop together. Two people. A dirt floor.
Today, Sertodo is a cooperative of more than thirty artisans, working between Austin and Santa Clara. Every piece is hand-hammered from 100% recycled copper, slowly, in the rhythm of a craft that does not speed up. Made to be used. Made to last lifetimes. Made to become heirlooms.
