Local artist's 2 cents sells for big bucks
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Artist Stacey Lee Webber holding her art, left, and one of her pieces, a penny-soldered tomahawk. Photos: Courtesy of Webber
For Stacey Lee Webber, a penny saved is literally a penny earned.
Driving the news: The Philly-based artist, who runs a studio with her husband, Joseph Leroux, solders coins together to create stunning replicas of industrial tools, such as chainsaws and hammers. She's even created a full-size barbed wire fence.
- Webber's work, part of a collection called The Craftsmen Series, was most recently displayed during Miami Art Week, Axios Miami reports.
What they're saying: The pieces are a social commentary on the declining value of blue-collar labor in the U.S., says Webber, who received a master's of fine art from the University of Wisconsin.
- "Literally seeing that visually these pennies were just pennies, and you're turning them into something that someone's never seen before," she tells Axios. "The thing was made from nothing, basically."
How it works: Webber and her husband used to spend hours sorting through large batches of pennies, looking for ones made before 1983.
- Those pennies are pure copper while those manufactured after are copper-plated and melt too easily, Webber says.
Yes, but: Sorting took way too long, so Webber now purchases pounds of presorted pennies on Ebay for, uh, pennies on the dollar.
- "The work keeps continuing to evolve," she says.
By the numbers: The pieces are worth more than face value, listed for between $5,000 and $200,000.
- Some people express sticker shock over the prices, Webber says. How can a penny be worth so much? But dedicated collectors can't get enough of her work and are willing to pay for it.
Flashback: Webber grew up in Indianapolis. She was the type of kid in school who focused more on perfecting the front-cover illustrations for essays than the writing.
- She met Leroux while attending graduate school. They moved to the Frankford neighborhood over a decade ago and now run an art studio, Bertrand Productions, out of the Globe Dye Works building in Northeast Philly.
- The couple hits the road several times a year to showcase their and other artists' work in other cities.
- For example, Webber worked for more than two years on the pieces on display last week in South Beach.
The intrigue: The works are a mix of masculine and feminine, aggressive looking while strikingly Spartan-like.
- But if you peer closely enough, she says, you'll notice a touch of brotherly love and sisterly affection.
- "I hate to use gritty … it definitely has this texture and authenticity of everyday people," Webber says. "It sticks to you like glue."
What's next: Speaking of the mascot, has she considered making a penny Gritty statue?
- "I'm such a Gritty sucker. People would [go crazy]," she says.