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.

Lizard Door Handles Insired by Nature Pragmatically Adapted

The lizard we see most often in the Hollywood Hills is the California Alligator lizard, so named for its long snout and back patterning which is similar to the American alligator found in the southern states.
The similarities continue as both species have long tails and short legs and enjoy a carnivorous diet. The smaller of these 2 reptiles’ preys on much smaller creatures eating a wide variety of invertebrates but also to my surprise feeding on small birds and bird eggs.
There are several varieties of the California Alligator lizard and the ones we see in Los Angeles are distinguished by their pale iris color and by their grey scaly skin. While lizards have a 10 to 15 year life span and live here throughout the year, they tend to me more noticeable in the warm summer months when we spend more time outside and these days we are all spending a lot more time outside. The larger than life lizards in our collection of door hardware were loosely modeled on the Alligator lizard as can be seen in their long tails and pointed snout. However, as with all our nature inspired hardware designs considerable artistic license was used to modify the shape and size of both the lizard’s legs and scales to make the door handle pleasing to hold and easy to grip.

To create the lizard handles Martin’s first step was to sketch from memory his impressions of the Alligator lizard. Using this he drew a second lizard to form a pair of right and left facing door handles.

Inspiring Entry Door - Bee Door Knobs and Insect Art

Choosing the right doorknob for our new insect paneled entry door was not a difficult task as we have 4 styles of animal and reptile to choose from. The carnivorous lizard would have been an obvious choice but as he occupies center stage on our entry gate, we decided to opt for the bumble bee knob.
The bumble bee is cast in bronze and we finished this set with a dark oil rubbed patina which plays well with both the red and black colors of our entry door. To accentuate the bees round abdomen and eyes and to highlight the ridges on the honeycomb back plate we lightened these sections for contrast.

The honeycomb back-plate can function as both an escutcheon for the bee knob or as trim that can be used to house a keyed cylinder. The bee knob when turned activates a latch that opens the door and when released keeps the door closed. The honeycomb is machined to take a spindle that passes through the port of the latch to activate the latch and to keep the knobs firmly attached to each other.

The honey comb for the keyed cylinder is machined on the outside with a large 1 3/8” hole to house the keyed cylinder and on the inside with a small ½” to house the turn piece that enables the door to be locked or unlocked from the inside. If you study the photo of the inside trim you will notice that the turn piece is styled on a small cockchafer beetle.

Our entry door took several weeks to create and our posts document how the panels were created so if you want to turn one of your doors into a gallery of bird, animal or flower paintings then please do read our earlier posts of japanning and gold leafing. Needless to say there is no limit to the subject matter for decorative panels, so harness your imagination and create something fabulous.

Japanned Gold Leaf Panels with Bumble Bee Knob

Roller Latches for Stunning Door Handles

A tubular latch is used to hold a door or double door closed. The latch has a tongue that is thrown into the door strike when the lever is depressed, or knob is turned. A roller latch performs a similar function but does not require a lever or knob to be activated which is an attractive option where you have stunning door pulls and do not want anything to detract from their beauty.

Roller latches come in a variety of configurations some perform a simple closing function and Imperial Lock makes a series that also will lock a door. Whatever the configuration they share a simple roller that is a metal ball which projects into a recessed hole in the strike when the ball is sprung. Well-designed rollers are adjustable, and you can decide how far you want the roller to project out from the edge of the door using a long projection to create a tighter closing door that will require more force to open.

Roller latches vary as to how difficult they are to install. To fit a mortise roller latch you will need to cut a substantial rectangular area into the door to house the mortise box which is a job best left to a skilled carpenter or locksmith. In the photos shown here we installed a much simpler roller latch for our bedroom double doors so that our Hedgerow tree pulls could be shown in their full glory. The roller latch only required a shallow small rectangular area for the face plate which was done using a router and a smaller round hole for the roller which was easy to drill out.

Creating A Custom Appliance Pull Using the Lost Wax Process - the Wax Stage

We are currently working with a local designer who has specified many of our Willow cabinet pulls but who also needed a taller version of our Willow Sprig for use as an appliance pull. The client’s kitchen, not surprisingly, only required 3 large pulls and did not warrant the cost of a new patterns and mold. As our work is made using the lost wax method, we were able to create 3 new pieces by hand and by combining wax models.  Please refer to our earlier post to see how the new pull was designed using a left and right facing Willow Sprig.

Step 1

A total of 3 Willow sprigs were created in wax. A left and right wax sprig were made for each end of the new piece and a section of a second left sprig was used to make a connector between the 2 ends. Picture below shows melted red art wax made by Westech being poured into the sprig mold, the wax has a relatively low meting point of 160 degrees.

Step 2

The mold is held together until the wax has cooled and solidified at which point the mold is pulled apart and the wax pattern thereby released.

Step 3 and 4

The section to be used as a connector was cut from the wax sprig using a heated blade and then further heated with an air torch so that it could be bent to the correct shape.

The ends of the left and right sprig were cleaned and refined with a hand chisel.

Step 5

The ends of the left and right sprig were cleaned and refined with a hand chisel and then joined to the connector using a heated blade which melts the wax enabling it to be melded together to form one continuous piece.

Seasonal Colors for Door Hardware

While the seasons may appear elusive in this sun- shine state, the slight chill in the air reminds us that autumn has arrived and with it our sense of color naturally drifts to the rich colors of autumn.

Visitors to the wine country in Paso Robles will now be able to see the wide variety of reds, yellows and brown that color the vines of their favorite varietal.
For the less fortunate we hope that our custom hot patinas when applied to our plant pulls will provide a reminder of what this season brings.

For our vine cabinet pull we used green, red and brown dye oxides applied as liquid patinas to create a gradation of colors to the hot surface of our bronze pull. To ensure that the pigmented liquid adhered to the surface we sand blasted the casting prior to heating. As the patina is translucent the golden hues of the bronze still shine through.
The dye-oxides we use are available through SculptNouveau who also offer a full range of sealants suitable for most metals.With our pear and oak leaf cabinet pulls we omitted the pea green dye oxide.

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In our earlier career as furniture makers we used a similar technique when creating our japanned vine leaves. The iridescent quality of the leaves was achieved by applying gold leaf to the motif before adding successive layers of translucent color.

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Frogs and Toads for Halloween Treats

 Frogs are one of 3 creatures in our door hardware collection that spring to mind as spooky Halloween draws near. Our Raven and Bat sculptures will make their appearance in later posts but now the spotlight shines down on our amphibian friends of the warty and smooth varieties.

Our frog doorknob bears warts that are more typical of their dry skinned shorter legged toad cousins. When Martin modelled the frog doorknob, he wanted to add a textural element that would also give the frog a grumpier persona and for the naturalists amongst us it should be noted that in nature quite a few frogs do have bumps. 

The Halloween connection for Frogs is attributed to Shakespeare’s song of the witches from Macbeth where this ill-fated creature is added to the cauldron for the witch’s brew. In folk lore, contact with the bumpy epidermis of frogs when accompanied by the right spell could inflict warts on one’s victims.

The frog doorknob shown hear is mounted on a wreath of entwined willow leaves and being cast in bronze can be finished with a simple oil rubbed patina or with a hot patina to create verdigris.

Our smooth skinned frog cabinet pull is equally versatile and with the right hot patinas can be transformed to look like the poisonous dart frog found in the rain forests of central and south America.

How to add some fun to your kitchen remodel

How to add some fun to your kitchen remodel

To provide a better understanding of our small insect and reptile cabinet pulls we will over the next few months be photographing these little creatures form different perspectives. The hope is that this will help homeowners plan how and where to use these pieces and have a little fun in the process. We have typically photographed these pieces straight on and not surprisingly this is how they have been used on cabinet door and door fronts.

Cabinet pulls are typically thought of as being directional pieces but in nature tree frogs which our sculptures are based on are not directionally restrained.
The first image shows the profile, rear and aerial view of the left and right frog sculptures.

The second image shows how these 2 frog sculptures could be arranged in a leap-frog formation going up and down the cabinet door and drawer fronts. Given the whimsical nature of these pieces we feel you can indulge your sense of fun when tackling the more serious task of a kitchen remodel.

The frog pulls shown here were cast in solid bronze and finished with a light antique patina which we strategically removed to create highlights which accentuate the very 3-dimensional nature of these pieces. All our cabinet pulls are sculpted as three-dimensional art pieces and each facet is refined to create a piece that is attractive from all sides.

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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

Gold Cabinet Pulls or Polished Bronze?

When is gold truly gold and when is it polished bronze? This is a tongue in cheek question and the answer reflects (pun intended) the high luster and jewel like appearance of polished bronze.
While we do occasionally gold plate our door hardware and while this clearly adds value to the item, for many, the appearance of gold is what is needed to create an accent to cabinetry.
Bronze is an alloy containing copper and this is what makes it a golden color. Copper and Gold are both elements on the Periodic table Cu and Au respectively and while they are both malleable and were used by early man they differ considerably in terms of scarcity and hence cost. A visit to https://www.jlab.org/ revealed that the “name Copper comes from the Latin Cuprum meaning “from the Island of Cyprus” which is where the Romans obtained the majority of their copper ore. The name gold comes from the Sanskrit word Jval and the Anglo-Saxon word gold.” Gold and bronze are both very soft mediums and in the case of silicon bronze tin and silicon are adding to copper to create a harder more durable alloy.

Frog Cabinet Pulls Polished Bronze

To create a highly polished surface the casting goes through 3 stages of progressively finer buffing;
First, we buff it using a high strength non-woven nylon disk on a mechanized buffing wheel, as the disk is not woven it is pliable and can buff irregular shapes. The material of the disk contains aluminum oxide a mineral that makes sharp very fine cuts into the surface of the bronze which helps to create consistent brush marks over the entire surface. We use a medium grit disk made by Standard Abrasives.
The piece is then hand polished using a 400-grit fine wet/dry sandpaper.
Lastly, we buff the pull on a cloth buffing wheel. Buffing compound is applied to the edge of the rotating cloth disk and when sufficiently coated the pull is pressed against the edge of the disk to create a high luster.

Custom door handle spindles for very deep doors

Our door handles are made to order here in Los Angeles. Once a door handle set has been cast and before any patina is applied the pieces must be machined and assembled according to the door specifications. While previous posts have explained how back-sets and handing affect the choice of components little has been said about how the thickness and material of the door can impact the choice of door spindle.
In the context of door handles and accessory door hardware the spindle is a metal rod that passes through the door and can be used to perform different functions;
a. Act as a connector to connect the 2 knob/levers of the handle set and to turn the tubular latch.

b. As a connector to a turn piece that will pass mid-way through the door to turn or throw a latch bolt.

c. To connect door knobs/levers where there is tubular latch that can be locked or unlocked using a pin that is pushed in or pulled back. In this instance, one half of the spindle swivels so that when turned the knob or lever will unlock the door typically from the inside as would be the case in a powder room. A half swivel spindle also enables a door to be opened where a mortise lock is used, in both these cases only half the spindle swivels otherwise the door could be opened from both sides. As a side note to keep the knob or lever on the swivel end taught an auxiliary spring is trapped at the end of the spindle and placed under pressure part way into the center of the spindle, this keeps the knob in place despite the frequent rotation of the spindle.

I am reluctant to ever use the word “standard” in any hardware context, but interior doors are often 1 3/8” or 1 ¾” deep and we would use respectively a 2 ½” and 3 ½” spindle.
A Hedgerow passageway knob set has just been ordered for a 5” thick door and so we are making 2 custom spindles, one at approximately 8” for the knob set and the second at 6” for the turn piece described above which is shorter as it will only be passing through half of the door. The door is unusually thick as both sides will be upholstered adding a pliancy element to the equation that may impact the final door thickness. As the upholstery is likely to contain soft padded material the installer may need to shorten the spindle, so the fabric is compressed slightly around the escutcheon so that the knobs are sufficiently tight.

Dragonfly beauty with efficiency

We now have a water feature at home so Martin spends a lot of time taking shots with his zoom lens of insects that it attracts and this weekend he was able to capture 2 mating dragonflies and the resulting beginnings of their progeny.

Martin uses a 28-200mm zoom lens and the details he caught of this dragonfly couple were not fully seen until they were uploaded onto his iPad. The couple mated on the wing for a brief couple of minutes and then the female dipped her ovipositor into the pond to disperse her eggs. The speed of the mating and egg deposit took us by surprise and we are impressed by the staggering efficiency of this reproductive cycle.

When the pictures were uploaded on Martin’s iPad we could appreciate the intricate beauty of this flying red wonder. The wings look like fragile window- panes

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Having mated the female hovered over the pond and selected a location to lay her eggs.

She then deposited her eggs into the pond with her ovipositor which she also used to disperse her eggs.

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Click and enlarge to fully appreciate the intricate detail of these window-pane wings that we cannot see with our naked eye.

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Our bronze dragonfly maybe a poor facsimile of nature but we have tried to capture as much detail as possible in our bronze cabinet knob that weighs a hefty 2 ounces and that is colored with a hot red brown patina.

What is the best medium for door hardware patterns

There is no correct answer to this question, but your choice will depend on your method of designing and your skill sets. The broad choice is between creating a pattern using traditional carving or modeling techniques versus 3D designing and printing.

Traditional techniques -

You can create a solid pattern by modelling the design in clay and by adding and removing clay to obtain the desired shape. We are sculptors by training and create our patterns using wood or jewelers wax or high-density rigid foam. Basswood carves well as it is a close grained soft wood but the grain is distracting, and its directional nature means you have to be an adept carver changing direction with your chisels as you follow the grain. When the wood pattern has been carved, we typically coat it with a matt grey primer which both fills the grain and helps us see any imperfections that need to be carved out and sanded. While Jewelers blue wax is dense and one can achieve good detail it is not as strong as basswood and is more brittle which makes it less ideal when creating fine deep lines. Moreover, even though free of grain it has a uniform color that has a pronounced sheen both of which make it difficult to see what has been carved.

As both wax and wood have drawbacks, we find ourselves increasingly turning to high density rigid foam a product often used in the film industry by set designers to create props. This medium is light weight, dense, grain-less and matt and carves beautifully. It is available in blocks and easy to cut and glue and moderately priced.

The Hawaiian bird pulls were ordered recently by designer Christina Hilt in Florida in warmer tones to compliment the golden burl wood in her client’s closet. A dark patina accentuates the detail in a piece but if the pattern is carved with a deep relief carving then these details will still be seen even where there is minimal patina and minimal tonal contrast as was the case with Christina’s order.

Pattern in high density foam with foam block

Contemporary 3D pattern making

 If you are adept in digital designing, then you would begin by designing your pattern in illustrator or Painter or other 3D program. On completion the design would need to be output as a STL file which could then be printed as an SLA print which is a photo polymer

Nature inspired cabinet pulls

The yellowjacket wasp was the model for our open and closed wing wasp cabinet pull and was originally designed for the Ascot Highboy a furniture piece made by our sister company Martin Pierce Furnishings. In keeping with the yellowjacket we finished these pieces with a yellow oxide which we burnished along the wing veins to expose the golden bronze beneath.

The Ascot tallboy was a limited edition of 100 which was closed at number 78 in 2013. The piece was made using quartered English brown oak, selected for its rich brown amber hues and for it’s dark “leoparding” a term that refers to the darker spotted figuring. The open and closed wing wasps were patinated to compliment this distinctive wood.

Several years ago, on a road trip to Idaho, we stayed at Lake Pend Oreille and came across the bald-faced hornet which is a relative of the yellowjacket but being much larger it is referred to as a hornet. The black and white markings of this insect are why it is referred to as bald-faced rather like the way we refer to the “bald” eagle.

Our memory of the hornet’s markings influenced a recent order that called for a simpler black oxide patina. By restricting the black patina to the head and thorax and by burnishing the wings we were able to create a dramatic statement using a simple patina on a small piece.

The wasps are cast in solid silicon bronze and are part of our insect and animal collection of cabinet knobs.

The Design Process for Door Handles

Creating door hardware is a balancing act where artistic inspiration is balanced and refined to meet the practical demands of functionality.

Continuing from last weeks post I want to share some of the initial designs that were submitted to designer Debbie Zylstra for her client’s home in Kailua-Kona. Debbie was in the process of designing a home entertainment center in Koa wood and wanted to incorporate dramatic door pulls for sliding doors. The cabinet was grand in scale at a height of 9’ and the lizard heroic handles were considered as a possibility. These pieces are extremely realistic, and the client wanted something more stylized and original but in the reptile family so, pencil in hand, Martin sketched out the iguanas. Martin designed 2 interlocking iguanas which give the illusion of being 2 different pieces, but which use one iguana that is inverted to create a pair. To get a sense of proportion he then reduced the scale and inserted the design into a scaled drawing of the cabinet. The body and head of both iguanas project out from the cabinet door by 4” and the underside of each projects 1 ½” so that there is enough clearance for the hand to grab either the head or tail of each iguana to slide the pocket door open. The angle of the head, legs and tail were made so that the pair would interlock comfortably but leave sufficient space so that fingers would not be pinched.

Below are the original sketches for the first large reptile sculptures that are the central pieces in the Lizard collection. Given their realistic design Martin felt he needed to create a left and right facing lizard so that he could more naturally capture the movement of a pair of lizards. The pair was designed so that the head of the right lizard protrudes beyond the slate back-plate allowing the thumb to then be extended to depress the butterfly thumb piece and thereby release the door latch.

Polynesian Inspired Cabinet Knobs

I recently stumbled upon early drawings that Martin Pierce did when commissioned to create a series of Hawaiian door and cabinet pulls for a residence in Kailua-Kona. In this post I will focus on how he developed the Double Headed and Single headed bird knobs.

When commissioned the scope of design for the cabinet pulls was to create 2 types of knob one 6”W x 2”H for the drawer fronts and the other 2”W x 2”H for the cabinet doors in a style loosely described as “nature based Hawaiian”. There were no other parameters which left the creative field open for birds, fish, people and plants as design starting points. Martin decided to proceed in 2 directions with a plant theme and a bird-animal theme, the former resulting in the orchid collection and the latter with 2 bird head knobs. For the bird knobs Martin turned to surfing the web looking for examples of Polynesian folk art and what he came away with was an image of highly stylized geometrically detailed work. With these thoughts he focused on the heavy beaked Takahe bird found in New Zealand, the most southern point of geographic area that makes up the Polynesian islands. This ground living bird has a rather thick head and thick beak and using this as the end of the drawer pull he designed geometric semi circles spreading out from the eye to depict swells of feathers that also look like breaking waves.

With the cabinet knob the beak and eye remain the focal point of the design but here a spiraling sea shell is used to form the birds tail.

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.

Painted Lady Butterflies and Their Influence on Door Hardware Designs

Painted Lady Butterflies and their influence on Hardware Designs

Like so many in Los Angeles we have been stunned and are “gob-smacked” at the multitude of Painted Lady Butterflies that we have seen this week. These small pretty insects are everywhere but only once has my iphone been to hand to snap a couple of shots.

While the monarch butterfly is sadly in rapid decline, for this year at least, the Painted Lady population is booming with billions passing through on their way north from the Mojave Desert. The exceptional rains that have put a temporary hold on California’s drought have given rise to an abundance of nectar as food for these migrating beauties. The short life cycle of a butterfly consists of 4 stages from egg, to caterpillar to pupae and then to butterfly and for the Painted Ladies lasts about 4 to 5 weeks.

I was surprised to discover that these small beauties can travel at speeds of 25 miles an hour and cover as much as 100 miles per day but this explains how they are able to make their trek from the Mojave to Northern California in their short lives.

We have been inspired by butterflies as well as bees, wasps and moths in our collection of insect cabinet pulls. We also have incorporated a butterfly as the thumb-latch for our entry way lizard handle set.

The Painted Lady captured here drinking from Clematis demonstrates this butterflies preference for purple clustered flowers, a fact observed by Katelyn Boisvert in her paper presented at the Young Naturalist Awards.

Modern Door Knobs Custom Made for Upscale Residence

We have just completed casting and machining 8” diameter knobs for the entry doors to an upscale Connecticut residence.

Although The handle design was minimalist the knobs were cast in steel and hand polished to create a subtle but beautiful contrast to the dark doors where they will be mounted in the center panel. In the picture below, we have created a mock-up of what the entry sets will look like.

Step by Step account:

Designing, pattern and mold making;

We began the process by discussing with Fletcher Development the function and style of handle and determined that there would be 2 knob sets, one that would operate and release the custom mortise lock made by Accurate Lock with second set being fixed as through bolted dummies. We chose to cast these in 316 stainless steel which is a corrosion resistant very durable alloy.

We then created 2 wooden patterns one for the rose or escutcheon and one for the knob itself both of which were turned by hand on a manual lathe. The patterns were coated with primer to fill in the wood grain and flexible rubber molds encased in rigid plaster were made. The pattern and mold making process could have been eliminated had we opted to make quick cast stereolithographic prints for all the knob sections.

Custom backset

Once cast, the operative set had to be machined to function with a custom mortise lock made by Accurate Lock for a door that would have a 14 7/8” backset. The backset is measured from the edge of the door to the center of the door knob. The knob was machined and fitted with a custom spindle that was designed to slot into the mortise and thereby throw and retract the latch when the knob is turned. The escutcheon plates for the knobs were machined so that connecting bolts could be attached to the exterior knob, pass through the lock body and connect to the interior knob. While the escutcheon plates could have been surface mounted this would not have provided a firm support for our 8lb knobs. As the mortise body was 7/8” thick and the door was 2 ¼” deep , surface screws, had they been used would have been insubstantial at ¾” in length. The body of the lock was customized by Accurate’ s experts to accommodate our though bolts and we bench tested it with our castings to ensure all the moving parts were aligned.

Are Contemporary Door Handles also Modern Door Handles - untangling semantics

Being a product of the 50’s and later being influenced by the 1960’s mod culture I have often used the adjectives modern and contemporary interchangeably and see that many search engines also assume these terms are synonymous.

More Modern Door Pulls

Various dictionaries define contemporary as meaning to live or be from the same time so clearly the word can be used to describe past periods as in “Gaudi and Mackintosh were contemporary architects”. By comparison the word modern is defined as being in the present or in recent times and does not have the historical breadth as the word contemporary. That said, social trends and common usage may have the biggest impact on a word’s meaning and while the word modern was, in the 1960’s understood to mean to fashionable or hip, the word now seems a little dated. Lately I find myself describing my Martin’s designs as futuristic which is not surprising given his fondness for sci-fi. So, when you look at these pictures of our work use whatever term you think fits!”

Modern Door Knob part of the Morphic Collection

The Morphic serpentine door pulls when cast in stainless steel do appear a little alien and while the first film in the alien series is one that Martin has seen countless times the lead alien was not a model for this pull.

Ergo Door Lever an interior lever set in stainless steel

Perhaps the offspring of the alien may have had a more direct impact on the Morphic door knob.

Thankfully the more “modern” Ergo lever has it’s roots in the art nouveau period.