Luxury Door Hardware is Defined by the Details

By choosing the lost wax method of casting and by casting only in silicon bronze or stainless steel we have by virtue of the casting method and type of alloy created door handles that are expensive. However, our focus on hand finished details from “chasing” the bronze castings to skillfully and slowly adding patina justifies the price tag. As a case study I have photographed the wine grotto door handles that I mentioned in a prior post.

When assembled each escutcheon plate with lever weighs 4lbs and measures 4” W x 14”H and all of it is silicon bronze not a precious material since it is not exactly rare, but certainly an expensive quality metal. Bronze is an alloy that flows well, and this makes it a perfect medium to capture the fine details and undulations of vine tendrils and leaves of this back-plate and lever. Once cast the bronze pieces need to be refined by hand to remove any debris or surplus metal that has attached to the surface and this done by using metal chisels and grinders through a process called “chasing”. After the larger imperfections have been removed the entire back-plate and lever are buffed with series of buffing tools with the grit of each becoming progressively finer until the bronze is free of abrasions and tool marks. The pieces are then ready to be immersed in a cold patina which reacts with the bronze to oxidize it and turn it black. The degree of darkness is determined by the length of time the piece is immersed and once achieved the piece is then neutralized in water to halt the chemical process.

Marked in Green Areas to be Chased Final piece after refining and with patina

Now the true artistry begins as we rework the piece to create highlights by buffing the surface in select areas thereby sanding through the patina to re-expose the golden bronze.

Fine Details Define Luxury Door Hardware

I have recently been tasked with organizing hundreds of photographs we have for our door handles, cabinet pulls and bathroom accessories and so have been revisiting some of the close -up shots of our more detailed unusual handles and decided to share some of the images in a post.

The phrase “the devil is in the details” sums up perfectly our view on fine door hardware but where did the phrase come from and what does it mean when applied to door hardware? A google search brought me to the site; phrases.org.uk which is devoted to the origin of sayings, and is well worth bookmarking. The phrase probably dates back to the 1800’s and is attributed to several likely authors and originally was expressed as “the God is in the details” and like the modern version suggests that whatever one makes should be done well and with due regard for the finer points or details.

The Willow Collection

As hardware artists this has shaped our door hardware in 2 distinctive ways;

When creating the original pattern Martin Pierce spends hours, days and often weeks carving fine details into the wooden pattern to achieve an intricate piece that will become the parent of all the castings that are made from the mold. Devoting the time it takes to create these artistic details jettisons our work into the luxury market.

The mantra also impacts the lengths we will go to achieve the completeness of a style. In our lizard collection it was important that the ancillary trim for the door lock followed the lizard theme, so we spent time planning and designing a very natural accompaniment.

Similarly, when tasked with a commission for a Willow style cremone latch while the commission did not specify a custom trim for the bolt, this was a detail we felt was needed for completeness.

Luxury Home with Star Gazing Observatory

As a brand that specializes in unusual custom hardware we have over the years created unique door handles for hotels and luxury homes, but this year marks our first venture into designing door handles for a private observatory.

When contacted by LM Design Group, an international Los Angeles based design group we did not appreciate that the sketch they provided of moon handles was for an observatory for an overseas villa.

The commission came at an opportune time as we had obtained UL approval for our new line of illuminated handles and were able to take this technical know how and configure the LED lights to work inside a concave moon fixture.In a previous post we shared a short video showing how Martin carved and hollowed out the concave basswood pattern that was the base for the door handle. The pattern was coated with a ¼” of gesso which formed a surface that could be carved to create moon craters and stylized moon texture.

The image below shows the pattern after carving the gesso was sprayed with a grey color before being carved as the natural white gesso is to reflective making it difficult to carve as depth is more easily judged on a colored surface. The image to the right shows the same approximate area as rendered in bronze and finished with a dark antique M20 patina.

While the original design was to be open with light shining through to the bronze back panel the client preferred a softer light, so we added a custom plexiglass diffuser.

New Handles and Lighting A Spring Summer Preview

As we approach day time savings we wanted to update you on our forthcoming new handles and lighting and new internet partnerships.

Videos

We have been busy developing and shooting a series of videos which will soon be live on our website and also on Facebook and Daily Motion. The videos were made by Jeff Jenkins of www.onefoxtwofox.com and they follow on from our lizard and door handle video collections.

We are currently making a time-lapse video of a new and very grand custom door grip that will be used as the main entry and ballroom door handle for a new project in Texas. Too date the video shows how the pattern has been carved and we will continue this visual diary by showing how the mold is made, how waxes are produced and finally what this 6’ tall bronze grip actually looks like.

We are also continuing our   time-lapse video of the new Hedgerow illuminated door handle which we began last year and which we hope to complete by the end of the year. The new Hedgerow handle is extremely intricate and it has proven to be technically challenging to find appropriate areas to incorporate LED lights.

New Illuminated Cabinet Pull

We are following on from our illuminated door handles and are now adding 3 illuminated cabinet pulls that will be part of the Morphic collection and which will range in size from 2” to 14”.

New Catalogue

This week we will be launching our March 2017 Hardware & Lighting Catalogue which will be available as a pdf from our website.

New venture

Soon we will be partnering with www.interiordesign.net and www.architonic.com to showcase and officially launch our venture into the low voltage lighting market. Through these 2 sites we hope to be able to effectively connect with designers and architects.

Golden Door Handles

While we have on occasion silver plated our designs thereby earning the description of luxury door hardware, the appearance of opulence can be achieved in silicon bronze. We often visualize bronze door handles in darker more antique oil rubbed finishes but cast silicon bronze has much richer golden tones. Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper with varying amounts of silicon, zinc and iron and trace amounts of other metals and metalloids including aluminum, manganese and phosphorous.

While the high amount of copper gives the bronze casting its rich color, the remaining components combine to make the bronze a strong, durable and rust resistant alloy. The strength of the cast bronze and its dense pore free surface allow us to achieve a highly polished finish that looks like gold.  We first started using this high polish finish with our cabinet frogs in an effort to emulate the silky glossy appearance of tree frogs which were the inspiration for their design.

Lately we have started casting pieces from our contemporary Morphic collection in bronze rather than stainless steel. When cast in bronze these Morphic cabinet pulls take on a decidedly Moorish quality.

Modern Door Pulls Morphic

However, while bronze does not rust it does tarnish over time and if left un-sealed with develop its own unique patina with tones ranging from dark bronze to green depending on the chemical properties in the surrounding air. However, very much like silver ware the piece can be re-buffed or polished to bring back the sparkle. If the piece is a door handle then daily use will also buff the areas that are constantly being touched. 

Luxury Handles for Windows by Martin Pierce

When we began our venture into functional art we started by assessing how doors and cabinets function and endeavored to make all of our art hardware suitable for most uses. We have described in other posts how we adapted our custom door levers and escutcheon designs so they would be compatible with privacy and passageway latches, deadbolts and mortise locks and could be specified according to the door function they performed. Needless to say we did not think of all the possible ways that a door lever could be used and so when our Willow collection was specified as the style for furbishing a complete home, including the windows, we had to create several custom pieces to fit the narrower dimensions of the window frame as well as act as a trim for a lift and slide mechanism that was being used to push open the heavy windows with minimal effort. Thankfully we had seen this type of window in use in Europe and New York so had a rudimentary understanding of the challenge. The results were 2 new additions to our collection of custom door handles.

                                                     Handle for a lift and slide window mechanism

As our homes and commercial environments evolve so we are regularly challenged to adapt and customize our work and recently this has taken us into adding LED lights to our door handles and soon we will be adding a new section to our site devoted to this new and growing area

Making a Statement with Colorful Entry Door Handles

While oil rubbed bronze door handles are naturally beautiful and over time develop their own unique patina, designers seeking a more dramatic entry statement may want to consider powder coated steel as an option. We are fortunate in Los Angeles  to have access to highly skilled powder coating experts like Dan Regan owner of Primo-Powder. We began working with Dan when presented with the challenge of powder coating the inside of a custom Morphic pull that had been specified by Mike Hong of MHA.

The problem was two-fold:

1. How to perfectly match in powder the client’s brand color of that was sampled as a painted chip.

2. How to apply the color once developed through the front lattice of the handle while leaving the lattice and front of the piece color free.

What was surprising was that it was far more difficult to match the color than it proved to be applying it.

See Collection

The client’s brand color “Toronto Blue” was available as a liquid paint by manufacturer Sherwin Williams but  not as a powder. We contacted Prismo Powder Coating who manufacture powder and who are familiar with matching colors. The problem though was that while liquid paint has a specific pigment formula or code, there is no cross reference from paint to powder so this process was done by comparing the blue paint sample with the Prismo’s archival records for the color blue. While some of the suggestions were close, out of hundreds of blues none was a perfect match so a custom blue was formulated for our project.

We learned a lot from this project and with help from Dan Regan gained a valuable education in how color can selectively be applied to metal using high temperature masking tape.

With this new insight designers can now add color to our Ergo Entry Door Handle and other pieces as shown in the photos above.

A Textural Approach to Luxury Door Hardware

While much of what we cast is visually dramatic where possible we like to add a textural note to our Luxury door hardware. The lost wax method of casting is perfect for creating deeply textural pieces that would be almost impossible to achieve with less expensive casting methods such as sand casting. The depth of a particular detail is limited only by the pattern makers skill and by the gravity flow of the molten metal.             

The pattern is the 3 dimensional original and is the starting point for the casting. The mold is made from either a latex solution that can be brushed on or from a catalytic 2 part silicone solution that can be poured over the pattern. While both solutions take an almost perfect impression from the pattern, the latex solution will require several layers and will require a more rigid casing to support the floppy mold.

Vortex of Swirling Leaves

The Willow heroic door pull is a good example of the type of detail and texture that can be achieved from a silicone mold that was made from the pattern above. The pattern was carved by Martin in bass wood which is a pale and tightly grained wood and then painted with a grey primer to more clearly reveal any imperfections and to also help fill in any pores in the wood grain. The undulations in the leaf tendrils left good impressions in the mold and the result is a casting that is an almost perfect facsimile of the original but when rendered in bronze creates a stunning door handle.

Section of the pattern with grey primer to show any imperfections and to fill the wood grain