In his Austin warehouse, Jonathan Beall sips water from one of his copper cups, an Ayurvedic practice said to stimulate digestion and increase immunity. He points to a hand-carved solid-copper vase made using traditional techniques, such as melting recycled copper into ingots and repeatedly annealing and forging the mass into shape, a skill he learned in Mexico. It reminds him of a similar piece he encountered on a trip to Sayulita, on that country’s Pacific coast, almost thirty years ago—he can still see it glittering in the dawn light among a peddler’s wares. “I had never seen anything like it,” he says. “I didn’t know what was happening, but I had a big feeling.”

When Beall launched Sertodo Copper , in 1997, he traveled the U.S., cold-calling hotels and restaurants to sell Mexican-ma

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