Plans for 2025

The final quarter of 2024 was action packed with fresh patinas for candleholders; Katydom making the cut for the Culver City Film Festival and the decision to make specific art pieces available for sale from our website.

So,  continuing with this artistic vein,  Martin Pierce we will be adding more art works  to the Katydom Kingdom and Anne Pierce will be adding content to the story line that some may have previewed at the Regal Live L.A. when Maria Ramirez-Adams short was screened.

Candle Holders

Hot red and green patinas are applied to heated bronze frogs to create a mottled finish similar to the coloring used by poisonous South American dart frogs to ward off predators. A more muted oil rubbed patina is available for those looking for less drama on the dining room table.

Katydom Characters

Seeing Martin’s sculptures come to life on a big screen and writing the narrative for Katydom has helped me focus on the roles and talents of the characters in this fictional kingdom. Specifically, I will be focusing on Katydids and the history and lore they inscribe as symbols on the fossilized wings shed by Katydid elders.  Wasps, with their  mud dauber masons will be added to the content and the structures they build will be captured in bronze.

Wasps in 2025 will be explored with emphasis on their craftsman skills, a departure from the current emphasis on athleticism.

Our mainstream occupation continues to be in creating unusual and beautiful door and cabinet hardware. We work with many designers helping to realize their design concepts with our designs and with custom designs fabricated for their projects. This will always be our creative core.

Happy New Year

We spent the days leading to 2024 in the quiet beauty of Paso Robles with a wonderful book by Virginia Atchley that documents the wonders of miniature Japanese art. Inspired by both we will this year be exploring how to create intricate details in sculpture using a variety of metals and possibly other mediums. Stay posted.

Discussion about learning art techniques

We are pleased to share a recent interview between Martin Pierce and Aaron Miller at Canvas Rebel.

Aaron structured the interview around 3 areas: learning and developing skills, pivotal moments in Martin’s career and unlearning habits or traits.

These questions allowed Martin to take a step back and look at his life in a more analytical way and helped prevent the interview from becoming cliched.  My role as ghost writer was to articulate this journey in a clear but expressive way. Our creative friend, Maria Ramirez Adams photographed Martin and several of his works at his studio and the framing of these shots gave the piece color and context.

The article can be read in full at Canvas Rebel’s site and the quotes below are intended as a primer.

Photograph Courtesy of Maria Ramirez Adams

Learning to unlearn

“As an apprentice wood carver, I learned to carve quickly and precisely, skills that made me a useful employee but also a prolific artist. I have had to learn to create with purpose and to understand that if my art is channeled into a business, I am not an untethered free spirit but must consider why one design versus another is worth making”

Learning skills

“The learning curve has been long … I was always interested in nature and enjoyed physical work but being dyslexic, I found studying a real pain. My school had 3 good courses, art, woodworking and metal work. I was drawn to woodworking and began carving at 12. I don’t think it makes sense to look back and over analyze wrong turns or wish you had done things differently.”

Current Focus

“Is the insect story I am creating in bronze and steel, and this is where I have a lot of fun. The plot line involves small insect loving humanoids who co-exist with large insects and together build houses and even compete in the annual insect race.”

Photograph Courtesy of Maria Ramirez Adams

A simple and complicated mold for lost wax casting

  A simple and complicated mold for lost wax casting

 Martin’s art journey continues and the story line of the insect world of giant insects is evolving as he begins to depict the dung beetle’s family life.

In nature many dung beetles have been photographed  moving their prized dung balls with alacritous backward leg movement. The dung ball is prized as it can be used as a food source or as a site for the female dung beetle to lay her eggs in which is called a brood ball.

In Martin’s fictional world he has opted to create a more faceted airy dung ball and one with organic hollows that will eventually be populated with offspring or dung beetle artifacts.

The patterns has been created, 3 molds have been made and the first red wax replicas have been poured.

The dung ball pattern began with a turned round wooden ball. A hollow fiberglass shell was molded over the ball by applying successive layers of fiberglass cloth sandwiched together with resin. Once set, the fiberglass ball was cut and removed from the wooden ball leaving a hollow shell. An organic design was drawn onto the face of the shell, and using a Dremel, sections were cut out and removed. The fiberglass shell was coated with three layers of gesso which was sanded to soften the edges. The shell was sprayed with primer and work on the mold began.

While the mold was made using simple compounds the process was complicated and time consuming. Layers of liquid rubber were built up inside the perforated shell. To prevent the rubber from pouring through, the holes of the shell were filled in with pieces of modelling clay molded by hand to fit each irregular hole. The outside of the shell was then coated with coats of liquid rubber and once set the rubberized outer shell was hardened with successive applications of fiberglass cloth and resin. Prior to the mold being made the pattern was treated with a release agent to prevent the mold material from forming a permanent bond. The end result is a 2-part hollow mold that is now used to make red wax replicas of the original pattern.

Happy Labor Day

While we humans may get a break from work those in the larger animal kingdom will still be buzzing and digging as they toil to create  honey and dung balls!

Our new sculptures include a dung beetle and Martin is currently creating an artistic portrayal of dung  beetle ball which will be the latest addition to his bug themed sculpture  series.

Our bees are still thriving in bronze and those who follow this blog know that we have recently added a bee cabinet knob to our flying creature collection of cabinet pulls.

Our fascination with bees was piqued by a book we are reading “An Immense World” by Ed Yong in which he devotes a chapter to the electrical world we live in. The planet’s daily thunderstorms are prolific running into the thousands and they create a massive electric circuit where the earth is a negative  and the air a positive charge. Bees buzz in this electric field passing by flowers who because they contain water are rendered negative or grounded. As bees fly through the air, they assume the positive charge of the air around them and when they land on a flower to suck nectar the negative pollen is attracted to the bees negative force and literally rises up towards the bee. For those able to remember their early science classes, this electric attraction is similar to what we observed as children when a magnet was used to pick-up iron filings.

Returning to the theme of this blog, labor day is not a holiday celebrated by bees or dung beetles both of which will be working overtime during this 3-day holiday.