The History and Evolution of the Proper Copper Tap

One thing that has always been at the heart of Proper Copper Design is Khan’s love for making taps. In 2016, the first tap was made, this was quickly installed into Khan’s Mum’s kitchen sink. It is still there, standing strong, we always laugh about the strong stance the taps have. There are three specialist finish taps in the workshop leant up against a wall, they sit and survey all the goings on, keeping a watchful eye while boasting their completely unique patina.

Figure 1 Three specialist finish taps in our Brighton workshop. Left to right: Verdigris, Marble and Matt Black

I wanted to write a blog post about our handcrafted copper taps, but I felt I couldn’t write a very good post without getting Khan to say a few words about the beginning of Proper Copper’s tap making adventure.

“My personal passion for all of this [Proper Copper] was crafting and making taps. First tap was made and put straight into mum’s kitchen. I always knew that the opportunities for this are fantastic, there are endless different designs and finishes that we can apply. I didn’t have any taps on the website for another year and a half after making that first Siene tap because we got so busy with other things that we weren’t prepared for and a whole business grew out of some copper handles”

It’s funny to think that the taps have been about since the beginning, but Proper Copper took off so quickly that there was never a moment to get them uploaded to our store. We now have 30 taps on our website and even more yet to come. All of our taps are available in four beautiful copper finishes, Natural Copper (always my favourite), Satin Lacquered, Matt Lacquered and High Polish and we have also just perfected our specialist finishes; Verdigris, Marble and Matt Black. Every tap we make is available in any of these finishes, that totals to 210 individual taps. Nic is currently in the process of completing our tap catalogue, if it’s anything like the handle catalogue he has just published, it's going to be outstanding.

 

Figure 2 Siene tap in our Brighton workshop

Figure 3 Siene tap in our Brighton workshop, close up of tarnished copper patina

Figure 4 Khan's shed and original Proper Copper workshop, see the original Siene tap leaning to the left

Despite having a wealth of tap designs which are all available on our website, we are regularly approached by clients with their own designs. Our design team are always quick to make an understanding of these design ideas and create a beautiful finished bespoke piece, completely unique to our client. Half of all taps that we sell are bespoke orders and we thrive off working with our clients to help make their ideas into a physical piece. We have proved our capabilities as a workshop team by having bulk orders of bespoke taps come through while still maintaining regular functionality of our made to order products.

Figure 5 Bespoke tap design with Hot and Cold stamped stop cocks, this is 1 of 40 taps that were made to be sent to Manchester

Figure 6 Behind the scenes of our very professional photography set up. Specialist finish taps and Robin, Ed and Nic enjoying a coffee in the sun earlier this year

 

By Ellie Harp

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