Bumble bee cabinet knobs and bumble bee door knobs

We have completed casting our new bumble bee cabinet pull which was developed in response to the popular demand shown for our much larger bumble bee door knob. In an earlier post we documented how the original pattern and molds were created and now we are pleased to share photos of our first pieces which were patinaed in a dark finish and then sealed with oil and wax. As with all of our cabinet hardware the patina and how it is applied is an artistic process and one where we spend a lot of time deciding how best to bring out the details of each piece, where to add and remove color to create shadows and highlights, which parts to burnish which to make dull.

Bumble bees unlike honey bees do not produce a surplus of honey that can be harvested, and they do not live-in large colonies in symmetric organized hives. The bumble bee instead creates its nest opportunistically by using tree holes, rodent nests, leaf litter to form a seemingly disheveled dwelling. The nests may be easy to miss as they use leaves, animal hair and grass to create a layer of insulation to regulate the temperature of their dwelling and prevent it from overheating.

We chose the bumble bee over the honey bee for our hardware designs as its rotund shape makes it easy to grip. The honey bee, by comparison has a slender abdomen and pointed wings and a body shape that is closer to that of many wasps. Not surprisingly as insect lovers we also have 2 styles of wasp which for the non-purist can be paired with the bee to make a cabinet hardware  statement.

Bull terrier - a new dog and new collection of dog themed hardware

The Staffordshire bull terrier in our Dog Door Knob collection, was based on the good looks of our American Staffy Iris when she was in her prime. Now she is in her later years still looking good, still healthy, just moving slower, ring any human bells?

Iris at 12 what a beauty

We felt she could do with a pick me up and some company, so…. we rescued a three-month-old male Pitbull mix, we have named Jackson, who is now seven months.

Action Jackson full of energy -

He is a lot of energy and fun, and although he torments Iris to play with him, she likes him, tolerates him, and often chases him around the house.

He is a lovely character but is about to start some serious training as he will be a strong muscular dog who at this point seems unaware of his own powerful body.

Jackson doesn’t have the same type of face as Iris, but they are both staffordshire terrier mixes and are loosely defined as Pit bulls. The Pit Bulls in our neighborhood are primarily rescue dogs and they vary considerably as to height, weight and litheness. The registered American Pit Bull is recognized by the United Kennel Club and is described as typically between 17 to 21 inches across the shoulders with a weight ranging from 30 to 60 lbs. It is too early to know how big and heavy Jackson will become and seeing him daily we don’t notice his incremental changes which is why we are keeping a family photo album. Iris in her prime years weighed 50 lbs. and was extremely muscular and well-toned. At present Jackson clocks in at 45lbs and still has a lot of skin to fill with muscle.

Our dog knob collection is being well received by dog lovers and we will be adding a Pug and Yorkshire terrier to this collection of dog door knobs, door hooks, door pulls and door knockers.

A bumble bee cabinet knob takes shape at Martin Pierce studios

We are adding a bumble bee to our cabinet pull collection of insect pulls. We receive a lot of inquiries from homeowners who want to continue using our bee door knob on kitchen and bathroom cabinetry but at a hefty 3”high  the scale simply does not work. So, starting with our rotund bee knob we have scaled this detailed casting down and made a few other changes to create a modest but hefty 1 ¼” cabinet knob. The original pattern shown here was carved by Martin Pierce in solid blue jewelers wax and a one part mold was used to create red wax replicas. Once shelled the wax copies will be melted and lost to create a vessel for molten bronze.

Bumble bees, contrary to the way we have portrayed the bee door knob, do not produce honey and do not have a honey comb. The bumble bee does create a nest with a small number of chambers for the queen bees eggs and another chamber or pot to store nectar for the developing bees.

Using considerable artistic license to show case our bumble bee door knob

Only the queen bee and female workers have the ability to sting and this occurs rarely unless the bees are antagonized.  The typical life span for a worker bee is 28 days or less but the Queen and hive have an annual life span with the Queen laying eggs throughout the year. During the summer months the Queen will lay Queen eggs which when they emerge will mate with the male drones who will develop a new hive and bee colony.

Happy July 4th

We are celebrating the 4th with a long weekend and hope you are able to do the same. Ours will be spent comforting our older dog Iris, who like many dogs finds the noise of fireworks nerve racking. This year she is a little more fortunate as one of the advantages to her mature years is her diminished hearing and with a lot of ambient grey noise from electrical appliances we hope she will not hear the booms from city’s fireworks. For all the dog owners out there we wish you and your dogs a safe stress-free holiday.

To see other dog and cat themed door knobs visit our dog and cat pages.

Scaly breasted munia and Bulbul Sightings Hollywood Hills

In April 2020 we posted our sightings of the Black crested Red-whiskered Bulbul in our garden and this wonderful bird continues to flourish. To our delight this year flowers from our guava tree have been feeding a couple as they build a nest in a fellow birder neighbors tree. One of the few upsides to the pandemic was the time we and other neighbors compared sightings and notes on birds in our Hollywood Hills neighborhood and thanks to one neighbor we have now spotted the Scaly-breasted Munia. The Munia also known as the Spice Finch or Nutmeg Mannikin is a pretty chestnut colored bird with scale like breast feathers and is a gregarious one that tends to be seen in small groups. While we have not noticed this bird until now, it is a well-established non-indigenous species that thrives in sufficient numbers as to be counted on the California State Bird’s List.
As can be seen from the photos here, the Munia is more than happy to eat seeds from a bird feeder and the seed level drops significantly when the flock stop by.

Animal themed door or grand cabinet handle

When we replaced our water starved grass garden with drought resistant vegetation we were concerned that this would reduce the birds who frequent it but the contrary has proven true.
Our prolific honeysuckle and Kangaroo paw plant attracts countless Rufus and Anna Hummingbirds and the magnificent flower of our variegated Agaves attract yellow rumped warblers.
While not as striking in color, our feathered double headed bird door pull does possess drama and texture and is a central piece in our cabinet hardware collection.

Designing for Function - Part 3 Making A Custom Door Handle

In previous posts we have used a stationary pull to illustrate how a custom piece of door hardware is designed for lost wax casting, but what impact does a functional handle with moving parts have? The answer depends on the function and varies depending on whether the design is for a door- knob or lever and whether it is to be used as an entry door set or as a handle set for an interior passageway or privacy (think bathroom) door.

In this post we will use the set lizard passageway set to answer the question.

The passageway set is made up of several components, some are cast but others are either machined in metal or custom made to order by fastener manufacturers like Seastrom.

While the back-plate is a relatively straightforward piece to cast, the levers (left and right) need to be cast with a square hole for the ferrule and spindle which are the components that connect the levers together and that will connect with the latch that depresses and returns the lever. The 2 patterns, one for each lever, need to be machined for a square hole and how you accomplish this will depend on the medium used for the pattern. A ferrule is then added either to the pattern or to the subsequent wax replica. For bronze castings we machine our own proprietary custom ferrules in stainless steel an alloy that bonds with the molten bronze but as it melts at a much higher temperature than bronze does not distort or melt in the process. For steel castings, as a metal ferule would melt, we incorporate the ferrule into the pattern. The ferrule acts like a sleeve to hold the square 8mm spindle and it is machined with a tolerance that allows the spindle to fit tightly. A “C” spring clip is added under pressure to the outer rim of the ferrule, and this holds the lever to the back-plate.

The lever set must also be designed to function with a tubular latch. The spindle passes through a square hole in the latch, a component made by another manufacturer and that has an internal spring that enables the lever to be depressed to retract the latch tongue and which returns the lever to throw the tongue.

Depending on the weight of the lever, an auxiliary spring can be added to the ferrule to assist the latch and help prevent any sagging. The auxiliary spring is made in spring steel and as part of the design process the back-plate pattern is made with a stop which limits the motion of the spring to a 33 to 45 range.

The mechanical demands and therefore cost to create a new one-of-a-kind piece for a client are inherently expensive.

Boxer dog door knobs

Having officially launched our new collection of dog themed door hardware we wanted to share some of the background behind each dog breed.

We have four boxer dogs in our neighborhood with wonderful names, 2 are named Tank and Pistol, they are difficult to tell apart which given they are brothers is not too surprising. The other 2 are rescue boxers named Doctor and Dolly. Dr is a white boxer named after the well- known British show “Dr. Who” the other is named Dolly and as you probably guessed is a nod to Dolly Parton. My neighbor is a long- term fan of boxers and all his dogs have come from Boxer Rescue Los Angeles, a non-profit rescue center funded solely by private donations with a fully staffed kennel facility in the San Fernando Valley.

The creative end result of our neighborhood boxers  is a boxer head door knob set. The door knob exists as a functioning passageway set or can be used as a fixed door knob. The boxer head is also available as a simple door pull, or coat hook or as front door knocker. So far we have 8 breeds of dog but have 2 more on the design board which we hope to add by the end of this year or early part of next year.

All of the dog door knobs are made with the same eye for detail as our other lines of door hardware and made the same way using the lost wax method to create intricately detailed castings.

Animal and floral unique cabinet pulls

Our new cabinet pull website section makes plain the theme-based nature of Martin Pierce’s designs. For door hardware, after the initial design concept, the direction of each collection was dictated by functionality with each style needing to work as entry way handles, passageway levers and privacy levers and door knob sets. Cabinet pulls and knobs all perform the same function to open and close cabinet drawers and doors and this simple dictate allows for greater design freedom and whimsy.
Bamboo dresser pulls
All of our cabinet or dresser pulls are made to order as we are a limited production company and are very hands on, thus ensuring the high quality of each piece. The same does not hold true for the bamboo plant that was used to model the cabinet pull shown below. We are in the process of trying to eradicate this very resilient and invasive plant that regretfully was planted as a border plant and now threatens to extend its domain to include our entire garden. So, if you love the look of bamboo consider a more limited production version.

Orchid kitchen cabinet pull
In contrast to our bamboo plant our orchids are not very hardy and very selective as to when they flower and this may explain why we are so drawn to their beauty. Modelled on the orchids on display at the conservatory in the Huntington gardens a place worth visiting for it’s rich variety of tropical plants and trees.

Why research and development for custom hardware is expensive

The old and new schools for creating patterns and molds - part 2

Your design skill set and your preference for digital versus free hand designing may influence your choice when it comes to deciding how to create the pattern or file for casting.
Whichever road you take the research and development (R&D) costs will be significant. The R&D costs are often misunderstood, and many consumers have a hard time accepting that the pattern development can run into the thousands depending on the size and intricacy of the design. This cost is on top of the cost incurred in the design process (part 1), so perhaps we are stating the obvious when we state that custom, one of a kind door hardware, is inherently expensive.

Choice of medium for pattern making.

Regardless of whether the design is digital or old school and made with pencil and paper you should be able to use the same mediums when creating your pattern for use in investment casting or sand castings. If you have the budget and are developing a piece for high volume production, then die casting or 3D printing may be good options and may not require a pattern to be made. While die casting and 3D printing do not require a physical pattern, they depend on the design to be made with CAD/CAM software or comparable software that can capture the exact measurements and topography details of your design so that a virtual pattern can be created.


Mediums for Physical Patterns

The pattern for investment casting can be made from any medium that is both strong and non-permeable or that can be made strong by firing in a kiln. Your choice of medium will depend on your manual skills, can you carve or create a design in modelling clay? The choice will also depend on how dense the detail and undercuts are in your design, does the design have a lot of detail or is the design for a smooth piece with the detail confined to the edges? Our patterns are always made in a reductive way by carving or machining rather than by the additive clay modelling method.

Left cast trumpet flower Right hard blue wax pattern with gate in red wax

Mediums for carving or machining

Rigged foam –
High density rigid polyurethane foam comes in a variety of sheet sizes, thickness, and density. We typically use a medium 15lb per ft density. It can be machined on a bandsaw, turned on a lathe or used with cutting routers. It is ideal for moderately detailed patterns but it’s lack of tensile strength and brittle nature make it less useful for very detailed or large patterns.

Basswood & other woods
Basswood is stronger than rigged foam and finer details such as leaf ends or fingers tips that would be to fragile and brittle if rendered in foam are easy to create in this close-grained soft wood. Patterns created in basswood and foam need to be sealed with a paint primer or other non-permeable layer that act as a barrier to protect the pattern from liquid damage that may occur during mold making.

Blue jewelers’ wax
There are many types of wax available in block and sheet form that can be machined or carved to create a pattern, but we typically use a blue hard wax and pattern making.

Customizing a cabinet pull for a remodeled room

Occasionally I receive a call or email from a person looking for a cabinet pull to cover the holes that were unwittingly revealed when their kitchen or bathroom was remodeled.

 Our cabinet pulls are grouped by style in categories ranging from flying creatures to floral works to contemporary and futuristic pulls which can make it difficult when someone is looking for something merely to cover exposed holes. 

 The pages that were recently added to the cabinet hardware section of our site provide the center- to -center distance as part of the dimensional description and as a greyscale diagram making it easier to review which pieces will work or could be modified to work.

The mounting posts are inset from the top and bottom of the pull and their precise location depends on the style, weight and surface area of the pull.  As our work is made using the lost wax process some amount of customization is possible.

The mounting posts on the original pattern also act as gates through which wax and subsequently molten metal will flow. If the new center to center dimension is a little further or closer than our pattern we can modify the wax version and cut and re-position the posts so that their location will correspond to the existing holes of the cabinet. Such modifications are time consuming, and we would recommend a new pattern and mold be made for larger quantities.

Cabinet pulls undergo website re-model

It’s official, we have completed the remodel of the cabinet pull section of our website and hope that you will enjoy the new look and details.
Why the changes?
We have re-photographed our work in-house with the use of a light-box and a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera to better capture the detailed nature of our castings and to show that these fine details are not limited to one facet but are on all facets of each piece.
By showing different perspectives we hope to encourage customers to think outside the usual horizontal and vertical placement of pulls and consider different angles and directions for a more creative arrangement. Since our work is often described as whimsical customers should have some fun when facing the daunting task of planning their new home or remodel.

We hope we have made the task of pull placement easier with our black and white diagrams that show the width, height, depth and distance between mounting screws for each pull. The diagrams also show the distance between different points on a given line thereby removing some of the stress when figuring out the difference in meaning of “depth” versus “height” and “length”.

The new web pages also show the difference in appearance between our popular light and dark oil rubbed finishes. We still offer nickel plating and colored hot patinas so please contact us to discuss other finish options.
The images and diagrams have been complied in a new digital pdf that can be downloaded from each of the new pages or downloaded below.

Seagulls and Bears – unusual Hollywood neighbors

Unlike much of the country winter in Hollywood is usually warm and sunny making it a good time to enjoy a long walk to the historical Lake Hollywood aka the Mulholland dam.

Spending more time at my home-office I have become aware of the variety of birds who visit ranging from the melodious bulbuls and song sparrows to the deep throated sonorous crows and ravens. While seagulls may not be gifted with such distinctive voices, they make up for this with their sheer numbers and easy to follow daily trajectory to the small lake nestled below the Hollywood sign.

Hundreds of Seagulls resting in the morning sun on Lake Hollywood

The Mulholland Dam was constructed as a reservoir in the 1920’s and was named after the historical legend who is associated with its beleaguered history. The dam was almost identical in design to the St. Francis dam that sadly collapsed and killed hundreds of residents in the area we now know as Valencia or Santa Clarita. The St. Francis tragedy caused a public outcry and demands that the new dam be scrapped. As an alternative the water level of the dam was permanently limited to well below design capacity and the area south of the buttress was backfilled with vast amounts of soil and vegetation that now conceal the damns presence. The result over 90 years later is that dam no longer functions as a reservoir but as a lake that is home to thousands of seagulls and other water birds. The area south of the lake has beautifully matured with native shrubs and tall pines all guarded by a row of bear gargoyles in honor of our state residents.

 To see examples of how birds inspire our work.

Swallow cabinet pull

https://www.martinpierce.com/unusual-cabinet-pulls-insect-collection

To read more about the history of Lake Hollywood please visit:

https://la.curbed.com/2019/2/5/17434640/william-mulholland-dam-collapse-water-los-angeles-history

https://waterandpower.org/museum/Mulholland_Dam_and_Hollywood_Reservoir.html

New Cabinet Pull Direction for 2021

In 2021 we will be gradually be re-formatting our website so that our unique cabinet knobs and pulls can be viewed in greater detail and from different perspectives. This project started in 2020 and it has been quite an undertaking requiring each piece to be photographed several times, then clearly outlined in Photoshop and re-created as a dimensional diagram. We hope the result will allow viewers to appreciate the beauty of each pull and see how each is installed with either a single mount or double screw mount. The new pages will go live when all 70 pieces have received this attention so these posts will be a preview of what is to come.

Our cabinet pulls have been reorganized according to their style and on the number, we could fit onto one page for each collection. The size of the page did present a real challenge when it came to plants and creatures with somewhat arbitrary collections for flowers and plants and animals and flying creatures, but our hope is that viewers will be sufficiently inspired to browse all pages and not be deterred by categories.

The dragonfly is the piece we chose to represent our flying creatures and he/she is attached to with a single screw from the back of the cabinet drawer into the center post which is pre-drilled and screw ready, yes, all of our cabinet pulls come with screws.

The Hedgerow branch pull is attached with 2 screws also applied from the back of the cabinet drawer at a distance of 3 ½” between the centers of the screws. Many of our cabinet pulls can be adapted for surface mounting from the face of the piece but you will need to check with us to see if this is possible for the piece you are considering.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

In these dark times we do see some light at the end of the Covid tunnel and used our hopefulness and playfulness to create an imaginary tunnel with our real butterfly cabinet pulls.

May 2021 be a HAPPY YEAR for EVERYONE.

The small butterfly used here is one from our collection of flying creatures a rather whimsical and artistic collection of animal cabinet pulls. The patina used was a hot amber patina with black spots decorating the wings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT MARTIN PIERCE HARDWARE

We wish you festive seasonal cheer and hope that next year will be a happier and healthier year for all.

A Collage Made Using Our Hedgerow Small Tree and Our Moth Cabinet Pull

The flotilla of moths is a design that we will be staying with for the cover of our new cabinet pull catalogue which we will be adding to our site next year. Stay tuned as we update our website to include more cabinet pull photographs, drawing and other details.

How to Cast Bronze Butteflies - Good and Bad Runners and Gates

How to Cast Bronze Butterflies – Good and Bad Sprues and Gates
When designing a piece for investment or lost wax casting a lot of time is spent creating the original pattern and subsequent mold. When the pattern is created its shape and undercuts will determine whether one or more molds needs to be developed so that the detail of the original is captured and so that subsequent waxes can easily be released from the mold.

When the mold is being made it is important to anticipate how the molten metal will subsequently flow into the void of the ceramic shell. The shelling process and the function of the autoclave are discussed in earlier posts. The mold we made for the large butterfly was a two-part rubber mold and the pattern was carved in wood. We added wax runners and one large wax sprue to the butterfly pattern and made a hollow box to hold the butterfly. The area where the wax runner attaches to the pattern is often referred to as a gate. The number of runners and their size and location play a key role in determining whether the bronze will pour easily, and the casting will be successful.

The rubber mold is created by pouring a cold rubber solution into the box containing the butterfly with its runners attached. The rubber encases the butterfly and its attachments, and when set, the 2- part mold will be opened, the pattern will be removed, and a hollow mold will be left. Hot wax will then be poured in through the center hole or sprue and helped along by gravity and some gentle rotation will travel down the central sprue and into the runners to fill the void created around the butterfly pattern.
In this post I am including 2 examples of a well gated wax and a poorly gated wax together with shots showing the resulting bronze castings.
While it may be tempting to assume that more gates will ensure a successful casting, having more gates will impact the speed, pressure and temperature of the flowing bronze and the success of the casting. Having more gates will also increase the labor intensity of cleaning the casting as all the gates need to be ground off.

Unlike the butterfly on the left the bronze did not flow to fill the wing tip of the right butterfly so the casting was rejected and the bronze was melted down and re-cycled

A beautiful butterfly pull can only emerge from a perfect casting.

Customizing A Lizard Door Handle for A Glass Pane Door

The lizard heroic handles as is clear from their name are large sculptures and they are the signature pieces to this collection of door handles and cabinet pulls. The handle and escutcheon are welded together to make one entity but are cast in 2 halves. When the original pattern was carved we had to consider how the bronze would flow within the molds and made the decision to carve the body as one piece but carve the lizards toes as part of the stone plate. Had we decided to leave the toes as part of the lizard they would have been too fragile to support and would have been prone to distortion when made in wax or when invested with bronze.

The butterfly thumb latch when depressed opens the mortise latch

Forward position of the right lizard enables the head of the lizard to be grabbed with your right hand freeing the left hand to operate a thumb latch when used with of an operative mortise latch and butterfly thumb piece.

When asked if we could make either lizard narrower so that the handle could snuggly fit around the glass panes of an existing door my first reaction was no but I came to re-think my position when given the specifics dimensions of the door. Both the left and right lizards measure 5 ½” at their widest points but the narrower areas range from 2 ½” to 3 ¾” which gave us the possibility of modifying the back-plate and positioning the lizard to fit between the door panes. Since the toes of the lizard are part of the plate, we had to avoid these when slimming the plate during the wax stage. The right lizard overlaps the top edge of the plate so that it can be used in conjunction with a butterfly thumb latch when being used as part of an operative mortise set. The forward position of the right lizard and the position of the toes would have made it difficult to customize for this client’s door.

Left: Original Lizard Center: Orange area where wax to be cut Right: Modified Concept

Concept drawing showing position of modified left lizard

Happy Halloweeen

A very Happy Halloween to all of you from the bats, frogs and other creatures here at Martin Pierce Hardware.

Inspiration for Door Hardware from the Grand Canyon and Zion

The only question raised by our journey to the Grand Canyon and beyond, was why had it taken us 40 years to make the trip? We had heard wondrous reports from friends over the years but had chosen more exotic vacations in Europe and Canada and had relegated this local scene to the back burner. So, when our trip to Rome was cancelled, we found the silver lining to the Corona Virus and planned an RV trip to Arizona and Utah.

As my blog is written as an extension of our website I wondered what or how this trip had anything to do with our hardware designs, which in turn prompted the question of how nature influences our thought processes, specifically, Martin Pierce’s hardware designs. I have often stated that nature is the primary source of Martin’s design ideas, but the process is far from causal and is more subtle and indirect. While Martin does on occasion search out a plant or rock or animal as a study piece for a handle or back-plate, he spends more time simply and randomly photographing what he sees and finds interesting and in so doing creates a mental library of images.  

So, having explained the reasoning behind this post let me share some of the spectacular awesome sights we saw on this 9-day road trip in the company of Iris our canine family member.

Grand Canyon South Rim Storm Drifting In – The straight horizon created by the movement of the tectonic plates that raised the flat plateaus upward

Female Elk drinking rain water – the blurred pixels are reminiscent of the Impressionist Period

Look carefully to see the well disguised Grand Basin Gopher Snake. While this snake, as with most snakes is harmless, the jury is out on whether ophidiophobia would make a snake handle unmarketable. Our lizard collection of door handles is popular so maybe we should launch a snake collection we would love to hear your thoughts.

We took countless pictures but none captured the depth and magnificence of the Grand Canyon.

How to accent a minimalist Shaker armoire

Our cabinet pull collection evolved from our days as furniture makers. The first pieces were one of a kind and were 2 hand sculpted sycamore leaves carved in walnut that were used to open the pocket doors of a custom cabinet. The piece was commissioned by neighbors who became close friends and the piece was a collaborative effort with wood choices and Japanning details reflecting the ideas of 4 people. All by way of saying we enjoy working with creative people and are invariably pleased by what our clients create.

photo courtesy of Susan Cyphers

Susan Cyphers was in the process of remodeling her bathroom and had commissioned an Amish cabinet maker in her Chagrin Falls, Ohio neighborhood to make a Shaker style armoire. The armoire was custom made to house Susan’s linens and towels and in true Shaker style was minimalist in style and devoid of any ornamentation. A brief google search revealed that the Shaker philosophy was based on the principles of simplicity, humility and honesty and this was reflected in their choice of local woods and their avoidance of wood veneers or anything less than true. In keeping with Amish tradition, the cabinet was constructed with hand-made mortise and tenon joints rather than joints made by power table saws that are held together with dowels and screws. The result was a very well made beautifully proportioned cabinet with clean lines but one that really needed a decorative finale.

photo courtesy of Susan Cyphers

Susan was initially drawn to the frog cabinet pulls that are quite animated but was looking for a more eclectic grouping and selected the geckos for the upper doors and the moth and butterfly for the drawers below. The choice was inspired, and Martin and I love the way the geckos have been positioned one facing up the other down. The scale and center positioning of the drawer pulls also works well and the result is stunning piece that Susan’s imagination helped to create.