Innovating Door Hardware

The Morphic collection of door pulls lends itself to a variety of home designs partly because we cast in 2 mediums, bronze and stainless steel and partly because the fluid organic design pairs well with contemporary or traditional door styles and door mediums. So, whether your door is wood, steel or glass, minimalist or classical, Morphic can be integrated into the design statement.

End details

Unlike many of our collections, the series has 4 possible tips and we are planning a fourth which I am loosely calling desconstrucionist.
The  ends currently are standard heroic tip (left) and its larger relative (third from left), the symmetrical cylinder (second from left) and the scroll ends  (right). Each end is designed to contrast with the cell-like center and is easily accentuated by finishing in a different sheen or by powder coating with a contrasting color.

Planned Customization during wax creation.

The organic cellular design can be playfully adapted by cutting, splicing, and distorting the wax cell segments to create a unique piece. This is a new direction that we are experimenting with and has the potential to create one-of-a-kind pieces. For those who work in Photoshop this is similar to using the polygonal lasso tool to select an area on a piece and manipulating the shape using the transform function to create a warped edge. Using Photoshop to design  the new shape is relatively easy but replicating the piece first in wax and then in bronze or steel requires expertise in both casting and welding.

 Brazing

In a subsequent post we will discuss mixing the alloys of steel and bronze to create a hybrid pull.

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 4TH JULY

HAPPY 4TH JULY

A recent art piece inspired this flighty moth motif flag. If you look closely you will see that the stars have morphed into bronze butterflies.

View our other art works.

Thumb-latches and mortise locks - continued discussion

In the previous post we used a photograph of a mortise lock to identify and name the locks components which we will describe here in more detail.
The turn piece, deadbolt, and keyed cylinder act together to lock the door. When the key is turned inside the cylinder one clockwise turn will unlock and retract the deadbolt and conversely one anti-clockwise turn will throw the bolt. The key can also be used to retract the latch and open the door by being turned one more click clockwise. This sophisticated mechanism is useful when you have a bag of groceries as you can unlock and open the door with the key and simply pull the door open all with just one hand.
The turn piece has one function only to release or throw the deadbolt and if you are on the inside of the door with that same bag of groceries you will definitely need another hand to press down on the thumb latch or lever to open the door by retracting the latch.

In a similar way the thumb latch on the outside of the door and the corresponding thumb latch or lever on the inside of the door act together with the latch mechanism to open and close the door. Our Hedgerow entry sets are available either as thumb latch to lever sets or thumb latch to thumb latch and Accurate makes specific models for each configuration.

Upward Sweep of Hedgerow Branches

We use the Accurate mortise lock because it is a superior lock and made in the US. We also like the custom configurations that Accurate offer such as their disk insert mortise which is better suited to our more fluid and artistic trim designs. Our Willow and Hedgerow levers have branches and leaves that curve upwards bringing the lever closer to the turn piece. To prevent ones knuckles from colliding with the turn piece Accurate make a disk insert that allows the turn piece to be installed higher in the lock body.

Note How The Disk Insert Creates an Alternative Higher Positioned Port For The Turn Piece

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.

Limited Edition Door Handles

Limited Edition Door handles
We are a limited production company making finely detailed hand-made door hardware but our grapevine heroic door handle is a limited edition and here we examine both concepts.

All of our hardware is made using the lost wax method of casting and each piece is always chased by hand and finished by hand, which is a production process that simply does not work for industrial manufactures making 100’s or thousands of door handles. As artisans we are able to focus on smaller quantities which ensures that we can produce high quality unique and we hope more interesting pieces. In this sense our work is similar to that of the boutique or small winery who by virtue of their size are able to put more care into their craft than larger wineries.
Continuing the analogy the Grapevine Heroic door pull is akin to a small celebratory edition of wine where the number of bottle is limited to a few cases. The door pull was designed as a statement piece for wine collectors and is scaled for large wine cellar doors. The pull is made with the same care as any other piece but it’s scale, design and complexity warranted the added value of a finite edition of 100 pieces. Being 42” high and with 3 intricate sections the waxes are made personally by Martin Pierce who shapes and refines the smallest of details so that each piece is truly unique. Each piece is numbered and signed by Martin at the wax stage and we are currently at number 15.

Our hardware designs evolved from our work as furniture makers where we offered limited editions for the Vine Highboy (100) Aspen Buffet (30) and Aspen armoire (50).
The small number of the edition and the price point ensure that the edition will take several years to complete with each piece being fresh to the artists eye.

Using a heated scalpel and hand chisel Martin removes small imperfections from the wax

A Swarm of Bees Inspires a Collage of Bee Knobs

This has been the most remarkable spring but the arrival of a swarm of bees was as unexpected as it was spectacular. On Sunday we heard loud buzzing from our front garden and spent the next hour watching the process of hundreds of bees settling in our Brazilian Pepper Tree. What began as a few bees over the next hour became a mass all huddling together to protect the queen. By evening the swarm had settled in and become calm as the temperature cooled and their rest time commenced.

While we knew that the Queen was at the center of this colony, we did not fully understand why this event had occurred so turned to the internet. The queen increases the size of the colony by laying eggs that become worker bees and so the colony grows until it eventually it out-grows the hive at which point the queen lays a few queen eggs. The queen then leaves the hive before the new queen bee hatches and takes with her about half of the worker bees to journey onwards to begin a new hive. We were lucky spectators at the point where the queen and her followers had set out in search of a suitable location for their new home and had decided to rest over-night in our tree. At no point did the swarm pose any threat to us as we passively looked on from a safe distance remaining still save for the photos we took.

The following morning the queen and her entourage waited to be warmed by the sun before continuing on their quest.

I was inspired by the sight of these live bees to create a playful collage using our polished bee door knob with a back-drop of dark honeycomb roses which is the most well-known handle set from our Netsuke collection of animal door handles.

One Feather At A Time - The Raven Sculpture Journal

Continuing the journal of Martin Pierce’s Raven sculpture. 

Following his visit to Big Bear where he was able to see  raven’s up close Martin decided he needed to change the pose of his sculpture to show the raven cawing with his beak open and throat puffed to make the distinctive sound raven’s use when declaring their territory or courting.

Once captured in pencil, the raven’s 3  perspectives  were outlined onto rough wood blocks, one for each section of his body. In deciding  how to sectionalize the raven’s shape Martin had to reverse engineer the sculpture by determining how the bronze would eventually flow, where the  gates for the bronze could best be added and where thereby the bird could best be sectioned.

Constructing and de-constructing a Raven for lost wax casting

If Martin had been intending to make only one wood sculpture he would have chosen a wood with more character than basswood and would have sculpted the bird from one block of wood rather than several pieces. However, as this sculpture will be used to create several molds for lost wax casting the sculpture was made so that it could be de-constructed.

The raven will be cast in bronze and will be available as a limited edition. The raven will join his feathered friend the scrub jay in Martin’s collection of bronze sculptures, which as well as portraying birds also portrays insects in fictional settings.

Color in Nature and Hot Patinas for Door Handles

The green anole lizard was the inspirational basis of Martin Pierce’s lizard door lever. The lizard’s vivid pea green color is however a challenging finish to capture as a bronze patina and one that requires considerable dexterity and access to a blow torch, so hobbyists should proceed with caution.

While the lizard door knob is not of the anole family, as you can see from the photo below he is often specified by customers who want a similar finish to match his mate.

Lizard Door Lever and Lizard door knob

In an earlier post we described how to create an antique patina on bronze by using Birchwood Technologies' M20 product and how this chemical solution, through chemical conversion, creates a brown black patina that penetrates and bonds with the bronze. The cold patina process is a necessary first step that has to be taken before moving on to create a  hot green patina as without it, the green solution will tend to slough of the surface of the bronze. Once the blackened piece has dried it is then gently burnished to remove some of the cold patina from the lizard area. We mix white, pea green and yellow dye oxides, available through Sculpt Nouveau, to create the right shade of green which is applied several times to the handle to achieve the right hue. Throughout the hot patina process the handle is kept at a temperature of about 200° by using a blow torch.

The vivid greens are used by many creatures as camouflage that allow them to blend in with surrounding flora as is the case with this praying mantis that was wonderfully hidden in the variegated tones of this begonia vine.