Cluster of Dragonflies

A flock of dragonflies?

While birds of a feather may flock together this is not the case for dragonflies. While they may gather as a group over a  pond this is a fleeting scene that happens during mating when males compete for woman and afterwards when females deposit their fertilized eggs.

While they do not flock together they do make for a wonderful display and a recently completed order for 30 grabbed my attention when walking though the patina room.

The castings below were first “chased” an odd term meaning to remove metal burrs, scratches and other imperfections using grinders and sanding disks. After the metal surface is chased we apply the patina and once dry buff  the wing veins and other raised areas to remove it and re-expose the bronze.

Looking back over my collection of dragonfly photos I came across the common hawker taken when visiting England and the flame skimmer and blue dasher dragonflies taken in my garden pond in Los Angeles. The male hawker pictured below is distinguishable by it’s black abdomen with blue and yellow spots. The female has a brown abdomen with similar markings. One fascinating talent the female has to avoid copulating is to fall from the sky as if in the throes of death,  an act that effectively deters most suitors.

The common hawker, hawks for mosquitos, flies, lacewings and small flying insects and can be seen doing so around hedgerows and over still water.

Some of the flying insects they hawk for can be seen in bronze

The blue dasher can be seen in much of North America and was the model Martin Pierce used to formulate his blue patina

The flame skimmer is perhaps the most frequent dragonfly  attending our pond and together with our mosquito fish helps reduce  the mosquito larvae  population around our home.

Color Patinas For bronze

The intense colors of spring have inspired a new range of hot patinas that can be custom ordered for select insects pulls.

Dragonfly

The blue dasher is part the dragonfly family which is one of the largest insect groups in the world. Dragonflies are part of the skimmer family a name that aptly describes how they hover over water when mating and laying their eggs.

The red veined darter inspired our first dragonfly cabinet pull and the original carving and first castings were made in 1995. The first pieces in the cabinet pull collection were designed for our Ascot and Aspen limited edition furniture designs.

Common Blue Butterfly

Is a small butterfly most seen in the U.K and Ireland where it favors cool grassy meadows and woodlands.

Green long winged butterfly

The striking green- black markings of this long-winged butterfly were the basis for a new custom hot patina shown here. Butterflies and moths often display a distinctive array of colored patterns, and their geometry and repetition inspired our first butterfly pull which we used as cabinet door pulls on our Seicho style buffet.

Yellow Black bumble bee

Sadly, this bee, like many other insects is in decline through loss of habitat, pesticides, and inbreeding.

Hot patinas reason for minimum order

Creating a hot patina requires dexterity, a blow torch and keen concentration. The surface of the bronze needs to be finely sand blasted so that the surface has a slightly pitted texture. The pitted texture prevents the patina from sloughing off which is what would happen on a highly polished surface. Once sand blasted, the piece is firmly held with pliers and heated with a blow torch. Once hot the colored dye oxide is applied with a fine brush. During this process the piece must be repeatedly torched to maintain the temperature. The heat acts to open the surface pores of the metal thereby allowing the oxide to penetrate. The temperature is critical as too much heat will cause the oxide to crystallize and burn. The preparation of the piece and of the work area and tools are all time consuming and for this reason we require a minimum of 3 pieces for each order.