A touch of color in time for Easter

As Easter approaches we wish you all a merry time and if you are lucky enough to live in Los Angeles then we hope you too will enjoy the wonderful warm days that are upon us.

The arrival of Spring has seen the arrival of colorful orders at Martin Pierce Hardware, and we wanted to share these lovely pieces with you.

The order shown here is an interesting collection of branch and flying insects all finished with an amber hot patina, applied by hand and at a safe arm’s length from the blow torch used to heat the bronze.

If you look closely you will see that the small butterflies also have dot eye markings on their wings a characteristic of many butterflies possibly used to attract a mate or deter a predator.

We have recently updated our website to show our unusual cabinet pulls form different perspectives and in 2 different finishes. The hot amber patina is available as a special-order patina.

All these pieces can be seen in our revised cabinet pull web pages and in our new digital catalogue.

Making A Custom Cabinet Pull from Wax to Bronze

Following on from last week’s post I will be showing how we tackle the task of changing the direction of an orchid cabinet pull from left to right. Down-stream we will be making a new mold that will allow us to create a right facing orchid stem directly from the mold with each wax section emerging from the mold as a component for a right facing pull. Until demand warrants the time and cost of making a permanent mold we will need to re-work the stem and flower sections at the wax stage to create a new right pull. This process will be repeated for each pull ordered and as we have 8 pulls to make with each pull requiring 3 wax sections, we will be investing a considerable amount of time modelling by hand all 24 wax sections. The waxes will then be shelled with silica and eventually will be melted out in an autoclave and fired to create a hollow shell which will be invested with molten bronze. The wax that is burnt out is the reason this casting method is often referred to as “lost wax” casting. Rather than making wax replicas one could map the original left pattern to create a file for a right pull and then print each section or possibly the complete piece as a 3D print. To create the print, successive layers of photo-reactive resin are built up and allowed to solidify, a process that would also take hours. Given the extremely detailed nature of the pull the 3D print would still require some cleaning up before it could be shelled, making it a less viable method of production.

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See Orchid and other Plant Pulls

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Left to Right: Flower 2 parts, Assembled in wax, Front View, Profile View

In Photoshop it is easy using the edit function to flip an image horizontally so that it is shown as the mirror opposite and so change a left directional piece to a right in directional one. However, in the real 3D world this would not work and in the case of the orchid stem rotating the pull right would result in the 2 flower heads facing down making for an upside- down pull. To achieve a right facing pull the curve of the sprig as well as the flower heads and buds need to be cut and re-positioned.

Orchid Components - left facing buds and flowers re-positioned and shaped to become right facing

Choosing Cabinet Handles for Children

We have just had the pleasurable task of helping a very thoughtful parent select suitable cabinet handles for his children’s game closet. The cabinet was fronted by 2 outward opening large doors behind which were 6 sets of smaller double doors housing a variety of games.
What I found especially pleasing was the way an eclectic but related theme of handles was chosen with each child receiving his/her pair of handles. The cabinet pulls were chosen from our animal inspired collection and were all finished in a soft light antique oil rubbed finish.
The result was a very artful collection of pieces reminiscent of the specimen cases of 19th century entomologists.

Two larger Polynesian inspired pulls were chosen for the main cabinet doors, the pulls are very thought provoking as the design is a fusion of bird, vine stem and even human features all of which flow together to create an abstract mythical piece. Cast in solid bronze, the pull is affixed top and bottom with 2 substantial 1 1/4” tall 5/8” diameter threaded posts which provide good clearance from the front of the cabinet making it an easy piece to grip.

While the pieces chosen should make for some engaging conversations, they were not designed for any specific audience but rather reflect Martin Pierce’s fascination with animals and insects.

The piece shown below is one that Martin did design for children and one that he had immense fun making although the Bombay shape and the characters portrayed in the parade challenged his skills both as a wood carver and storyteller.

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Toy Chest Designed and made by Martin Pierce a private commission