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.

Choosing New Hardware For an Old Door

Clients typically order our work because they appreciate it’s unusual and unique quality. Occasionally customers turn to us for help finding door hardware that will work with an existing door’s bore and screw holes. I recently received an inquiry from a customer who had repainted her entry door and now was searching for a  handle set that would compliment her entry and  either conceal or make use of the existing holes. What she discovered is that most hardware manufacturers have set dimensional choices with no leeway for customization.

Doors are generally made with preset drilled holes, typically one for the keyed cylinder and one for the lever or knob. The distance between these 2 bore holes is referred to as the “center to center”. When retrofitting a door with a new entry set these existing holes can be difficult to fill and conceal if the door is natural or stained wood. Some doors may have more holes to deal with as would be the case with the Hedgerow entry thumb latch set shown here which requires 4 holes to be drilled.

The Hedgerow set however has a large backplate and at 20” in height and 3” in width would cover most pre-existing door holes. Our backplates are machined after they are cast giving us the ability to customize the center to center to work with existing bore holes. The additional holes that this set requires for the mounting posts will be drilled into the door when our handle set is installed.

We also have the flexibility of changing the location of the mounting posts as we cast these separately and later weld them onto the back of the plate.

Mushroom a fruit of nature and imagination

When I think of fruit my mind conjures up images of persimmons, strawberries and other sweet delicacies that I am fond of but it does not bring to mind mushrooms. This January we discovered a rather humorous and very suggestive mushroom in our garden and I was intrigued to learn more. The internet journey was helpful and I learned  that the mushroom in our garden is known as the stinkhorn which explains why our food obsessed dog gave it only a passing sniff.

The mushrooms in our collection of cabinet pulls like so many of our pieces are not a literal portrayal of any specific mushroom rather they are  a synthesis of different mushroom types that we cook with and that we grew up with. The toadstool, portobello and shitake mushrooms shapes are the closest to the shape of our left and right mushroom pulls. So what is our small double capped button mushroom pull closest too?

I discovered that the button mushroom, cremini and portobello mushrooms are not different species but rather different stages of the same species, Agaricus bisporus. The button mushroom is the young immature form and is characteristically paler and milder in flavor. The cremini stage is somewhere in the middle with a more defined flavor and the portobello is the mature adult with a very full meaty flavor. As the mushroom develops its anatomical parts are more easily seen and are labelled here.

The mushroom is the visible fruit of  a much larger fungus and the gills of the cap contain the spores which allow the fungus to continue reproducing. The mycelium is the vast root system of the fungus and it can cover acres and is critical to most plant life. I have labelled the mushroom parts in my greyscale photo of our left facing mushroom.

Orchid Door Handle

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Kellie Beaubelle a designer in Orinda, CA who was  looking for unusual hardware, what followed was a highly imaginative collaboration of design talents.

The project began with a finite plan for one entry  handle set, but once installed, the scope was expanded to include all the exterior doors that were fabricated by the door maker with Anderson multi-point locks. To accommodate the multi-point mechanism, we created a new turn piece design that has been added to our Hedgerow and Willow multi-point sets and which we will be expanding  to our other multi-points collections.

The project did not end with the entry doors as once the creative genie was out of the bottle Kellie wanted to see what artistic pieces could be added to the master and guest bedrooms. In a previous post we have documented how the Venus slipper orchid was redesigned by Martin Pierce to create a grand scale door pull which for Kellie’s project has been used for 3 large vanity drawers.

Once the concept was approved, we worked with Kellie’s vanity plan to create a mock-up idea showing how the orchid would look on the cabinet drawers. The pattern development and mold creation have been documented in 2 previous posts but now we can share photos of the piece cast in bronze and also nickel plated in a satin finish.

Plan drawing courtesy Kellie Beaubelle

Orchid handles added by Martin Pierce

The Venus slipper orchid has a pronounced stamen and labellum that project out from the body of the flower and in the casting, it is these points that are gripped to pull open the door or drawer.

CREATIVE NEW YEAR 2023

Our New Year’s goal is to continue to be creative and to share our ideas for original door handles and cabinet pulls with the design and home owner communities. We wish you all a Happy Healthy and Creative 2023 and look forward to helping you create inspiring settings.

These succulents, commonly known as red hot pokers brighten up our sidewalk where we planted them 7 years ago and where they thrive with minimal water. I am always amazed when they bloom as it is difficult to fathom how such intense color and beauty require such little sustenance.

Our bamboo cabinet pulls are also inspired by plants that thrive with little water.

Have a Merry Christmas from all here at Martin Pierce.

The orchid spray in the banner is a unique design that will be covered in detail next year along with a new orchid piece. If you are looking for orchid knob inspiration we have an orchid knob and orchid pull in our collection of plant theme cabinet hardware.

Custom Multi-Point Hardware

We are pleased to announce that we have created two new pieces that will make our existing Willow and Hedgerow multi-point trim suitable for installation with Andersen’s current multi-point lock.

Hedgerow Multi-Point trim interior view showing new turn piece designed to work with an Andersen multi-point lock

 Overview of multi-point lock

The multi-point lock and the mortise lock provide good alternatives for making an entry or patio door secure and which you chose will depend on several factors the most critical being that the multi-point lock usually needs to be installed when the door is being made. The multi-point lock is also designed to be activated by a lever rather than knob or thumb-latch and this is a critical factor in choosing suitable hardware trim.

The multi-point  has 3 locking points when the door is a single door and 5 when there are double doors.

The  multi-point system has 2 main components. A rod extension mechanism that has an  upper and lower section that is installed inside the door during manufacture and a deadbolt unit that the extenders are attached to.

The extenders are activated by a decorative lever that  is installed into the central deadbolt unit. When the lever is pushed upwards the extenders act as locking bolts and are thrown upwards and downwards into header and threshold securing the door at these 2 points. A decorative knob or turn piece is installed in the deadbolt box and when turned throws the tongue of the deadbolt into the door jam or in case of a double door into the non-active door.

Decorative Levers Escutcheons and Turn Pieces

Given that the multi-point mechanism is pre-installed during door manufacturer many consumers assume that this means they must also order the trim from the multi-point lock manufacturer, a fact that is far from the truth.

Exterior view of Hedgerow Multi-Point trim showing keyed cylinder

Willow and Hedgerow adapting for multi-point

Our standard turn piece that is used with Accurate’s mortise lock is cast with a fixed spindle that is on the diamond. Our standard turn piece for a deadbolt is cast on the square with a slot. Neither turn piece was suited to the Andersen deadbolt so we created 2 new turn pieces both square and with a square hole designed for Andersen’s activator. The photo shows how our new Hedgerow turn piece aligns with the activator. As we design and make all our work locally in Los Angeles we are well positioned to adapt our designs to suit different multi-points manufacturer by third parties.

Thanksgiving 2022

Wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

To create a seasonal collage, we decided to use the Willow flush door pull and the Willow sprig cabinet pull.

The Willow recessed handle is typically used as a barn door pull and is visible on the side of the door which would be routed out to accommodate it’s 3/4'” depth.

You will have to look closely to find out how we incorporated this piece in the banner collage to create a diamond shaped accent.

Since the pull displays only half of a flower head, we created a copy in Photoshop which we then rotated to make a whole flower head.

The Willow sprig required less assistance and was easily colored a bright green.

Patina Artistry

In the course of the working week as I pass through the small studio here at Martin Pierce, I am often captivated by the workmanship of our patina artists. The assembly of like pieces that I see are images I wanted to capture as they are both very beautiful and can be captured in our small photo light box.

We started photographing our work as a way of keeping a diary of the different projects and new developments and with the help of a professional photographer learned some of the basic techniques of how best to shoot our work. Our photographs are taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3 with a zoom lens inside a 5-sided white light box using  rows of small LED lights for an evenly dispersed downward light beam. The light box is housed inside a small dark room with almost no natural light. For stability the camera is placed on a small tripod. The camera is not state of the art and an equally good photograph could be created using a mobile device but what is critical is the light box and even distribution of light.

The willow friends shown above are being prepared for a new home in northern California and they are part of the handles we are making for 11 pairs of double doors that will be locked with an Anderson multi-point system. The Hedgerow and Willow collections were specified for the doors and the cabinet pull selections have been from the orchid and beetle and willow collections. In subsequent posts I will detail how we created 2 custom turn pieces to work with the Anderson lock.

Happy Halloween with tigers, bugs and bats

Whether for Halloween, or for no other reason that simple fun, enjoy our creations any time of the year. We have a collection of animal and insect cabinet pulls to chose from all cast in bronze and made to order here in Los Angeles.

For those looking for animal inspired door handles we have a collection of lizard, dragon, frog and rabbit door knobs to chose from. Each piece is first rendered in wax before being dipped in silica to create a tough exterior ceramic shell and finally cast in molten bronze. The process is not complete until each piece is “chased” or finely tooled by hand to remove any imperfections. Still not complete, the piece must be burnished so that it can be finished with either a simple oil rubbed patina or a more colorful hot patina. Voila! A unique piece is ready for your home or office door or cabinet.

The tiger door handle is now available as a powder coated piece in a wide variety of colors. If you have a brand color this can be matched by creating a custom powder. As mentioned in a previous piece, we are moving away from illuminated handles and offering all these pieces in  powder coated colors. The dramatic effect is not diminished but this provides a low- tech solution to supply chain problems with small LED lights.

Made in America – Changing Designs

As the global supply chain challenges are still with us we, like many, are finding ways to re-tool some hardware designs so that we are not reliant on overseas suppliers.  All of our work, meaning our castings are made locally by us here in Los Angeles. From the initial creation of the pattern to mold development, to pouring wax and then bronze or steel the process is local and the materials if not local are certainly American made.

There is one area though where we have relied on LED components in our illuminated door handles and so are transitioning away from lighting our handles to finding more creative and less high-tech ways of adding a dash of sparkle to designs, which in their own right, do not actually need embellishing. Simply put we are phasing out colored LED and replacing this with powder coating.

Benefits of new direction

The main advantage is the flexibility with which a piece can be powder coated. Powder coating can be applied to almost any part of a handle which allow for color to be integrated in a much more artistic and organic way. This is especially the case with the Morphic pieces.

When we created the LED pieces we had assumed that eventually we could move away from direct wired electric power to  long life batteries that would be small enough to fit inside the fixture. This did not occur and the resulting market was very small.

By moving away from LED products we are able to lower the consumer price just a little as we no longer will be buying the components and we will no longer be paying the costly testing and regulatory fees charged by UL.

Animal Knobs - Bees, Lizard and Dragon Designs

All are part of the Netsuke Collection, named for the contained round shapes of its members that are similar  to their namesake used in clothing as fasteners.

Bee

The shape of the bumble bee is inherently round but in our artistic representation these attributes have been exaggerated for a more whimsical appearance. That said, we share with many a deep respect for this prodigious insect who is central to the pollination of plants and whose honey I enjoy on a daily basis.

Back in March 2019 we observed a swarm of bees that landed and rested in our Brazilian Pepper Tree along their way to create a new nest for their Queen bee.

 Recently we added another smaller bee to our collection of  flying insect cabinet knobs and again have rounded the contours of this piece to create an easy and pleasing to grasp cabinet pull. In an earlier post you can follow the development of this piece from initial sketch to fully fledged casting.

Lizard

The Anole lizard was the specific lizard that we modeled our door knob on. We chose this species as it has beautiful green tones that we could simulate by carefully applying a … patina to the lizards body and tinny toes.  The lizard as with all our Netsuke door knob sets can be mixed with different animals on either side of the door. Many of our door knobs can be used creatively by mixing different styles in one door set. To see how designer Hilary Zeiss playfully mixed 2 different animals please visit our blog posted on June 4th, 2021.

Dragon

The dragon is the most recent addition to this collection and is my personal favorite.

Detailed Door Hardware

Occasionally we have the pleasure of working with a design company that shares the same detail-oriented focus and commitment to exceptional door hardware as we do. Over the last year we have had the pleasure of working  with Chiara de Rege and her all female team to develop custom pieces for her discerning clients. Based in New York, the company’s clientele spans both coasts with design services for residential and corporate clients.

 Our collaboration with Chiara de Rege  on an Upper East Side residence resulted in the creation of a unique collection of door push plates and door levers. The traditional  Willow series was whimsically re-invented and enhanced with flying creatures from our animal  collection of cabinet knobs. The resulting door push plates and interior door handles were selected from several initial designs that paired smaller insect, bird and frog pulls with the Willow back plates.

The design team were renovating a residence using the existing doors that had astragals and panel mullions  that reduced the workable free area of the door and limited the backset depth of the latch.  With these considerations in mind, we focused on the Willow and Hedgerow exterior backplates, both being narrow and having smooth areas that could be enhanced by the addition of a small creature .

Some of the designs considered are shown below. Once the design genie was released, we had a lot of fun experimenting with different cabinet knobs and with insects flying in different direction. While our preference and that of Chiara’s design team was on flying insects, leaves and flowers could work equally well for those who have an insect phobia.

Wasp Dragonfly Swallow Daisy Moth Frogs

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.

Floral Developments – Simple Mold Making Lost Wax or cold cast resin

In the previous post we documented the designing and pattern creation process for our new large orchid pull. Next, we make 3  two-part molds, one for each of the stamen, labellum, and petals.

Our mold is made using a 2-part silicone rubber solution Mold Star distributed by Reynolds Rubber.

The wax sections are assembled so that we will have template to guide how we weld the 3 parts.

Mold Star is available in different degrees of pot life, meaning the amount of time it takes before the mixed solution sets. Mold Star 16 has a shorter pot life and quicker curing time than Mold Star 15 and is the rubber we prefer using. For large area with more volume of rubber we add another Reynolds product, Slo-Jo that slows the curing time. As the silicone rubber is curing and especially for larger dense molds there is a tendency for gas pockets to form. The pockets may not be visible but when wax is subsequently poured into the silicone mold the pockets will create small holes in the wax. To prevent this, we place the thoroughly mixed silicone into a vacuum chamber and pump out the air and gases that form and when the remaining bubbles are extremely small, we then pour the solution over our pattern to create the mold.

The 3 sections will be cast separately and will be welded together once cast

These are simple 2-part molds that most hobbyists could make with a little time and practice. As the patterns are not too deep, they will be cast in solid bronze rather than as hollow castings. Our molds are used to create wax replicas for use in lost wax casting but the same type of mold could be used to create fiberglass or resin pieces. Gates and a central sprue are added to the pattern and these will become  the channels for the poured bronze. The gated pattern is placed in a tight-fitting container and the silicone solution is poured over it and left to set. Once set, we insert a sharp blade into the side of the mold and cut around the outer edge and gently pull the mold apart to release the pattern. The cavity that has been formed around the pattern is then filled with hot wax which passes through a central hole in the mold. The 2 halves of the mold are firmly held together with 2 pieces of bolted plywood that will keep the mold rigid when the wax is being poured. Once the wax has set the plywood is unbolted, the 2 parts of the mold are pulled apart and the wax replica is ready to be shelled. If you were casting your piece in resin, you would omit the gate and sprues and your product would be complete after the resin had set.

2 Part mold for petals these are held together with bolted plywood when wax is being poured

The orchid is assembled in wax as a guide we will use when welding the bronze sections together. The piece could not be cast as a single flower as there are too many undercuts and the bronze would not pour easily.

Bolts keep the 2 plywood formers in place while red wax is poured

New orchid design for dramatic entry door takes shape

Our Orchid cabinet knobs and pulls are popular pieces and often used as accent statements in kitchens and bathrooms. I suspect the appeal lies in their realism although the designs are not a literal portrayal of any particular orchid. The closest type of orchid is possibly the Paphiopedilum (Venus Slipper) or the Phalaenopsis (Moth) but with over 20,000 species and hybrids there may well be and exact match that left it’s imprint on Martin Pierce’s retina.

 Orchid Cabinet Knobs and Stems

The orchid knob has a 3/4” stem post that allows the flower head to be easily gripped and pulled. The same clearance for fingers is given to the orchid spray by the curved stem that connects the 2 orchid flowers.

New Orchid for grand statement

The new orchid is scaled to make a dramatic door statement and like our Willow heroic pull we see it being placed in the center of the door and not on the door stile. The end result will be cast in solid bronze and measure 6” x 6” x 1 ¼” and it may lend itself to being either nickel plated or artistically patinaed with differing hot green, red or yellow oxides. Unlike the smaller cabinet pulls there will not be a stem post mounting as the orchid perimeter petals will be flush with the door face. As the orchid is loosely based on the Venus slipper orchid it has a large stamen and labellum and together these will serve as the gripping point for the thumb and index fingers.

 Martin as readers will know begins a new piece with a front and side view drawn free hand on paper and this becomes the guide used to roughly cut the patterns in high density foam. The drawing details are then copied on to the rough patterns and then carved to create a three-dimensional piece. The new orchid will be cast in 3 pieces which will be welded together to create a single knob.

On line art gallery

We are expanding our on-line presence for our insect sculpture collection some of which can now be viewed on www.onlinegallery.art

This new venture will hopefully encourage readers to peruse the art work of other artists on a site that offers a wide range of mediums, subjects and styles.

Too date the Hornet on the Apple shown below and the Stag beetle have been added to online gallery with more pieces coming soon. In our fictional world humanoids may playfully spar with hornets for grazing rights to an apple but thankfully the hornets dominance is secured by it’s greater armory and strength.

In this same fictional reality stag beetles often provide transportation and other services for their humanoid friends but their relationship is symbiotic not exploitative and both species enjoy the fruits of each other’s labor.

4th JULY

4th July - Enjoy the long weekend

We are celebrating the 4th quietly in the company of good friends and hope all of our customers are able to do the same.

The hornet on the apple is a limited edition sculpture that we have playfully draped with the US flag.

The sculpture is one of several art pieces that can be found on our new site pages so please check them out.

If you are remodeling your home or fortunate enough to be designing a new home then please check out our wide variety of custom cabinet pulls and unique door handles Like all of our castings we are proud to make everything here in Los Angeles.

Back plates and Push plates

When is a back plate a push plate? This is an interesting and easy question to answer and the correct answer is whenever the plate is  large enough, wide enough and flat enough to easily push open a hinged swinging door.

Now that we have established the rules it becomes clear that most entry door escutcheons can be used as push plates provided they are ordered for this function.

Wasp, Dragonflies and Swallow add an Interesting Accent to the Hedgerow Entry Back-Plate Push Plate

Hedgerow and Willow

Both collections have 22” high backplates where the decorative component is limited to the outer top and bottom edges leaving a flat unencumbered area of 14” that is more than enough to accommodate the palm of a hand.

We make all of our work to order and tool our back-plates after the plate has been cast. In so doing our back plates can be later machined to create a hole for a cylinder lock or thumb latch or can be left as a flat plate to function as a push-plate.

While both collections have elegant back plates that need no further adornment, we have begun re-imagining both with more whimsical additions.

Ergo minimalism

The simpler backplate is smaller at 12” and while it does not lend itself to whimsy the fact that the entire plate is unencumbered allows it to function well as a more understated push plate. The Ergo collection is available in stainless steel or bronze.

Vine and Bark Back Plates

Both entry plates are adequate in size and in my opinion would work equally well as push plates as while they are extremely textured the filigree does not protrude too far or have any areas that could catch on clothing.