A couple of questions...
1. Are regular soldering joints strong enough to hold art work together... Any suggestions for the type of solder? The less toxic the better.

2. Can small pieces (less than 12X12") be annealed with a hand held propane torch.

3. At what point in the bending and hammering process do you know to anneal? Can you feel the metal becoming less flexable?

4. I understand that pickling removes the oxidation created during the annealing process. Is this nessesary to continue to shape? I kinda like the look of the oxidized copper.

5. Any book suggestions?

Yes, you can anneal a piece of 12" x 12" copper with a small propane torch. It will take some time, but it can be done.

When you fold or bend or hammer copper the molecules move together until they are so tight the copper fractures. Annealing releases the molecules and the copper is again soft.

You'll want to stop before you reach this point. When the copper gets too hard to form by hand it is time to anneal. To be on the safe side, anneal often.

When you heat copper a firescale (discoloration) developes. It is not necessary to remove this firescale if you like that appearaance. You can also wire brush the copper and then color it with the propane flame bringing out reds, blues and greens.

Copper is one of the easiest metals to work with. If you anneal often, it can be shaped and reshaped over and over again.

George Goehl