I use the same method as Brenda but instead of copper (which I looked for and could not find) I use aluminum flashing from Lowes, cut it with scissors and write on it with a paint pen marker. I can include lots of information beside the name when I write on both sides. So far the writing has held up for 3 years. I also like to use the coat hangers for pants that have the cardboard. When the cardboard is removed the ends are already bent and I only have to bend them a little bit more after cutting the wire on both sides of the curved hanger. I get two stakes per clothes hanger so mine stand up above the ground a little bit but are well concealed as I do not like to see the labels. I use a large head nail (so I don't miss with the hammer) to punch a hole in the aluminum. I also use this technique to label apple trees but hang the label from fencing wire that I loop around a limb. Thanks for everyone's ideas Sue

The initial material cost differences between copper and plastics are significant. A article comparing costs for different plumbing pipes can be found here: http//:www.southce.org/ajwhelton. A US government funded study to investigate what chemicals leach out of American plastic plumbing pipe is also underway. Go to that same web page and type in 'plastic pipe'. There has been quite a bit of work done in Europe but American materials have not been equally publicly scrutinized. Some of the study data has already been released and testing included actual buildings and testing of new pipes purchased at local building supply stores. Here is a link that might be useful: Informational research website

Thanks, ladies! BTW, I'm not reading that book --it was just a prop that was lying out because I tore the cover off. I read somewhere that old Readers Digest book covers make good little canvases and I have a bunch of them so I thought I'd try it. LOL!

No need to reply to this. Just FWIW: What if you dropped the wall behind the stove quite a bit. Kinda like this. How much you could drop the wall would depend on what you had to put behind the stove. On the top of the wall behind the stove, to at least partially conceal the stove's protrusion, you could put something like one of these? (In my mind's eye, I see a collection of copper boxes, not a single one.) I was looking for something that might hold kitchen tools or somehow be useful as well as pick up the sink's copper and be interesting. I found a couple. This one isn't long enough, but you'll get the idea. Here's a detail of the planter: And here is the link: Here is a link that might be useful: hand-tooled copper planter with birds This post was edited by Bellsmom on Sat, Feb 23, 13 at 17:35