About Ozarklake

Meet the Artist

Bill spent over 40 years in Naval aviation and electronics. Formerly a draftsman and sometime sketch artist, after retirement Bill was led to a functional craft that is not only different but serves a purpose and gives new life to reclaimed copper and glass. Many years as a professional wireman provide the skills to bend, form, and manipulate various and multiple gauges of copper wire, from very thin to tubing size, around rescued glass containers of all shapes and sizes. His imagination provides the art.

Bill’s talents have grown to include forming and hammering various items from sheet copper. There is no preconception and each piece takes on a life of its own in his hands. Each individual signature copper “leaf” used on most pieces is formed by hand. Joints are soldered, copper and/or glass accents are added, and functional art is created.

Each glass container is individually surrounded with a free-form frame of reclaimed copper wire in various gauges and accents of free-formed copper are added to create one-of-a-kind garden décor items. Hummingbird feeders are hand-formed in 2 styles - a vacuum-style feeder utilizing a glass container and a tube-style feeder utilizing small individual nectar tubes.

Other garden décor items include copper hanging dishes and baskets, hangers, and plant-starting “rooters” in the same repurposed glass and copper motif. All copper is hand-worked and free-formed, from the loops and swirls and twists of wire in various gauges to the hammered copper dishes and baskets. No two completed pieces are identical.

Bill can transform your treasured glass into a work of art. Please email for information.

Bill is a Best of Missouri Hands Juried Artist and a member of the Columbia (MO) Art League.

Terrie spent nearly 14 years with a national non-profit organization and left her position as Development Director in 2007 to devote her time helping Bill with Ozarklake Distinct Decor. She handles the "business" details and is a willing apprentice in the studio.