diff --git a/qpms/cybspec.pxd b/qpms/cybspec.pxd
index 853c372..4d080fc 100644
--- a/qpms/cybspec.pxd
+++ b/qpms/cybspec.pxd
@@ -6,4 +6,6 @@ cdef class BaseSpec:
     cdef qpms_vswf_set_spec_t s
     cdef np.ndarray __ilist
 
+    @staticmethod
+    cdef BaseSpec from_cpointer(const qpms_vswf_set_spec_t *orig)
     cdef qpms_vswf_set_spec_t *rawpointer(BaseSpec self)
diff --git a/qpms/cybspec.pyx b/qpms/cybspec.pyx
index e2813b8..9983272 100644
--- a/qpms/cybspec.pyx
+++ b/qpms/cybspec.pyx
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ try:
 except AttributeError: # For older Python versions, use IntEnum instead
     VSWFNorm = enum.IntEnum('VSWFNorm', names=__VSWF_norm_dict, module=__name__)
 
+
 cdef class BaseSpec:
     '''Cython wrapper over qpms_vswf_set_spec_t.
 
@@ -39,6 +40,16 @@ cdef class BaseSpec:
     #cdef np.ndarray __ilist     # in pxd
     #cdef const qpms_uvswfi_t[:] __ilist
 
+    @staticmethod
+    cdef BaseSpec from_cpointer(const qpms_vswf_set_spec_t *orig):
+        '''Makes an instance of BaseSpec from an existing
+        C pointer, copying the contents
+        '''
+        cdef const qpms_uvswfi_t[::1] ilist_orig = <qpms_uvswfi_t[:orig[0].n]> orig[0].ilist
+        cdef BaseSpec bs = BaseSpec(ilist_orig)
+        bs.s.norm = orig[0].norm
+        return bs
+
     def __cinit__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         cdef const qpms_uvswfi_t[:] ilist_memview
         if len(args) == 0: