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 4th JULY 2024

From all the creatures of Katydom to all of you, may you have a happy and fun July 4th.

Some of the large insects shown here also participate in the Annual Insect Race that happens in Katydom, a fictional world where humans are small, and insects are large. The rules that govern this annual event ensure that all contestants compete on an equal footing and accordingly all are restricted to ambulatory rather than aerial participation. The Katydids are the custodians of these rules and of other historical matters that are recorded on the wings of the Katydid elders.

The story of Katydom is evolving and we will be providing updates during the year as well as when we celebrate July 4th.

The Stag Beetle below is a major force to be reckoned with in the annual insect race.

The Katydids are custodians but also competitors in the Annual Insect Race

Making of Katydid

The latest insect in Martin Pierce’s collection of bronze insects and humanoid sculptures is complete. From design to mold and now to bronze, the Katydid, a central figure in Martin’s fictional world is being released as a limited edition of 30 pieces.

The story of this fictional world has evolved, and we now discover that this realm was named Katydom after the Katydids who were the original cultural custodians of this new society.

We discover that Katydids began the insect race, a competition that is central to the inhabitants of Katydom and that is held each year. Together they drafted the rules of the insect race, central to which is the rule prohibiting flying. With their long legs and great stride, you might incorrectly believe that the race favors the Katydid competitor but while their limbs have length, they lack strength and are slow moving competitors.

 The Katydid is more than an agile long-legged creature and has over time become the trusted custodian of all insect folk lore whether this be told pictorially or by writing. Much of the folklore is recorded as writing and symbols on the wings of many Katydid elders.

As the story develops so does the inspiration for new pieces for the collection. Currently Martin’s is designing a large Katydid wing with small illustrations of the landscape and inhabitants of Katydom.

 Video Announcement

“The Making of Katydid” is also the title of Maria Ramirez-Adam’s recent video that can be streamed online. With acumen Maria, in this short but detailed work has captured the progression of this piece from design to mold to sculpture. Her editorial skills allow us to clearly understand how and why Katydid’s wings are welded to the body and how the body of the insect is hollow cast. The film ends with clips of the hot patina process, and we see how the brown translucent pigment is applied and how the sculpture is then finished with hot wax which is burnished when cool.

While the content of the film is engaging its ability to captivate the viewer owes more to Maria’s skill as a perceptive film maker and to the fabulous audio quality captured by Craig Parker Adams, Winslow Ct. Studio

Stay Tuned for the Sequel

A short feature video is currently in post production and when released we will learn how Katydom was created and the roles played by it’s characters.

Maria Ramirez-Adams is a Los Angeles based videographer and artist and her work covers many hip aspects of local culture from reels showing the flare of local Pachucos and Pachuca to fascinating clips of jets arriving and leaving LAX.

Dung Beetle Types

The insect and humanoid collection of sculptures continues to evolve with new pieces in development. The additions are part of a narrative that will explain the relationship between the members of this fantasy realm and their lifestyles. The dung beetles’ ball building talent and the different uses the balls can be put to is the current focus. Not all dung beetles make dung balls or roll them and their different methods of building nests for eggs are a characteristic that separates and defines the different dung beetle species. Telecoprids shape dung into a ball and then roll it away from the dung source. Female telecoprids typically shape the dung into a big ball that is rolled to a brooding spot where she lays a single egg inside the ball. The brooding ball acts as a home and food source for the egg as it changes to a larvae and pupates to emerge as a young adult. Male telecoprids make smaller dung balls that they use as food for themselves and for their female mates but they also make larger balls to display their competence when seeking a female mate.

 Most of the dung beetles in our fantasy world are based on telecoprids but the paracoprid or dwelling dung beetles and the endocoprid or tunnelers and their social burrowing  ways have clearly impacted our telecoprids as they re-purpose their dung balls.

The concept drawing here is showing a humanoid on a swing with a young adult beetle inside a repurposed dung ball that has become the creche for young creatures. This will become a bronze sculpture soon and Martin has begun sculpting the ball pattern. The new piece will be smaller than the bronze ball that is available with a female telecoprid.

The telecoprid female rolls her brood dung ball, a feat that shows her engineering skills , navigational aptitude and formidable strength.

Patinas For Hardware and Sculpture

In previous pieces we have covered  our standard light and dark antique patinas. For custom orders we also offer a hot patina, which is applied to pre-heated bronze. We limit these finishes to just a  few pieces, that include the  small butterfly pull, which can be special ordered in amber- yellow; the frog knob, which can be ordered in a blue green, and the lizard lever or knob which we can patina pea green.

Sandblasted brushed - patina ready Cold antique bronze patina Pea-green hot patina

With our new bronze sculptures, we are developing patinas made with ferric nitrate as well as liver- of sulphur. Ferric Nitrate is a chemical compound of iron powder, nitric acid and it produces a  rust red patina. Liver-of-sulphur  is a chemical compound of powdered sulphur, sodium, and water. They are applied to the sculpture with a spray bottle or brush and the sculpture is preheated to a temperature of approximately 100°to 200°depending on the chemical and dilution. As the sculpture is hot, the wet patina attaches to the surface and the moisture evaporates quickly leaving behind a layer of color.

The colors these patinas produce on bronze can vary from gold to brown to red to dark red to black, depending on how hot the piece is, and how many coats are applied. The chemicals below can be mixed and diluted to produce a wide range of hues. They can also be applied over each other provided the previous patina has sufficiently dried. By layering the patinas and by using brushes and different spraying methods it is possible to develop deep mottled colors and effects. It has taken a lot of practice and years of trial and error to create the look we are seeking for each sculpture.

1. Scotch bright surface 2. Sulphur dioxide spray mist onto surface 3. Diluted bismuth white splatter spot spray

4. Ferric nitrate fine spray cover surface fine coating. 5. When dry wax

Words of caution to anyone thinking of learning how to patina bronze, exercise caution and a generous helping of common sense. The patinas we use are applied in a very well ventilated area and masks and gloves and protective aprons are a must. We also exercise considerable caution when heating up bronze as temperatures above 100° can burn exposed skin.

Liver of sulfur – yellow brown to black tones

Ferric nitrate – red tones

Ferric chloride – darker red tones 

Bismuth nitrate and titanium dioxide – white

Cupric chloride  – pea green or apple green

Cupric nitrate – blue green

A very good site for reading more about patinas and for practical advise on formulas can be found at David B. Bowman an artist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Insect Art by Martin Pierce

The technique of Japanning is one we used extensively as furniture makers to adorn our case-goods with natural themes. We have also used this technique to create an animal carnival on a commissioned toy chest and more recently to create smaller scarab wall tiles which will soon be available for purchase.

In the scarabs depicted in our wall tiles the body shape is based on the gymnetis family of beetle. This class of beetle has large wing casings which provide a prefect natural canvas for bright iridescent colors.
For our ongoing home remodel we will be using the scarab tiles to add an artistic touch to our front door where 18 tiles will be laminated to the 18 raised door panels. We have chosen 5 distinct bugs ranging from the round from of the lady bird to the elongated shape of the buprestid and will be using an abundance of artistic license to paint them in a variety of colors.
The beetle shapes will be cut from 1/8” Masonite and then built up with a thin layer of casein to form a smooth surface which will be gilt with gold leaf. The gold leaf once sealed will provide the backdrop for the beetles markings which be created with oil paint diluted with a solvent to create a thin translucent color. Once applied the oil paint will be sealed with lacquer so that successive layers of color can be added. As the layers of color are heavily diluted the lustrous gold shines through to create an attractive iridescence albeit one that is vastly inferior to that seen in nature.