Abstract Hannigan extends her material inquiry into copper through an evolving body of rogue knitted textiles, installation and small-scale sculpture which in recent years has deepened through the manipulation of fine copper thread—knitted, burned, melted and fused in dialogue with kiln-fired ceramics. The evolution of Hannigan’s artistic, material research, foregroundes copper not only as substance but as process: a medium shaped through heat, flux, tension, repetition and transformation. Returning in late 2025 to ceramic techniques explored decades before, alongside lace knitting with fine copper wire, Hannigan explores the intersection of mark-making and material behaviour these two processes offer. Here copper becomes both line and structure; ceramic clay becomes ground and counterpoint. The application of fluxes, glazes and controlled firing processes tests thresholds between stability and rupture, delicacy and endurance. Through kiln-based experimentation, Hannigan examines adhesion, oxidation, colour shifts and surface alteration, allowing chance and chemical reaction to co-author the work. While technically rigorous, this inquiry is equally reflective. Creative growth emerges through sustained engagement with material resistance and possibility. Hannigan’s exploration of copper is inseparable from her identity with place; Living in Australia (but born and raised in Aotearoa-NZ) her adopted home, is defined by mineral-rich, ochre landscapes. Here copper is materially and symbolically embedded. The metal’s presence within Australian geological and industrial histories informs her developing artistic identity; its prominence in her practice shaped by her current environment. In this way, Hannigan’s work situates material research within a broader narrative of migration, place-significance and self-formation. Copper becomes both medium and metaphor—an agent of transformation through which technical experimentation and personal geography converge.