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.

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.

Dragonflies renew the life cycle

Almost a year has passed since we shared the photographs, we took of mating dragonflies filmed over the air space above our small pond and not surprisingly we are seeing the same event now. This time we were more prepared and were able to take a short video showing a female dropping down into the pond to deposit her eggs from her ovipositor. While we were not quick enough to video the 2 mating, we will be making this our goal for next year.

We were also able to photograph the blue dasher dragonfly who hopefully will be making an egg deposit to our pond. Both the red/orange flame skimmer and little blue dragonfly have the same 3 stage life cycle from egg to aquatic larva (nymph) and then to colorful adult. The flame skimmer has a longer life span living for up to 1 to three years as compared to the blue dasher’s maximum life span of 6 months. However, both species spend the larger part of their lives submerged in water as developing larva and it is here in their less attractive state that they grow on a diet of other insect larvae and some small fish. It is perhaps for this reason that the idea of fish-eating dragonflies developed since this behavior is common in the non-adult flame skimmer nymph.

We have mosquitofish in our pond who together with flame skimmers eat mosquito larva. The mosquitofish also eat dragonfly , so it seems only fair that they in turn are eaten by the dragonfly nymphs.

The dragonfly shown below from our collection of insect cabinet pulls was loosely based on the shape of the slimmer blue dasher but we have often used the muted brown red coloring of the female flame skimmer when coloring the pull using a hot pigmented oxide.

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.

2014 HD Expo Countdown and a great giveaway

Well it is hard to believe that the first quarter of 2014 has come and gone and here we are in April.  Not sure about where you live, but in Los Angeles the sky is blue and the winds are brisk, typical spring weather, and the Jacaranda trees and desert flowers are in bloom. We are busy preparing ourselves and our products for the trip to Las Vegas to join designers, architects and hundreds of exhibitors at the 2014 HD Expo, held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center.  We will be occupying booth #4659 this year and are excited to share not only some of our more popular items but we will also be debuting some new pieces of architectural hardware that we know you will enjoy.

On top of all that, the first ten visitors to our booth will receive one of our scarab or dragonfly drawer pulls to use in their own home or office.  These little functional pieces of art feature exquisite detailing that makes them a joy to look at and handle.

Some believe that the scarab beetle represents the rising sun and is a symbol of development and growth but we see it as a unique drawer pull that will add interest to your custom hospitality design projects.

Martin Pierce will be on hand to discuss your individual projects so we look forward to speaking with each of you.

You can view our entire collection of custom hardware on our site at www.martinpierce.com.

2014 HD Expo---just seventy days away

We are continuing to countdown to the 2014 HD Expo and our trip to Las Vegas.  When we registered in January, May seemed a long way away.  But we now realize that we have just a bit over two months to pull our booth together!! This will be our third year in attendance and every year brings new relationships and contacts as well as the opportunity to reconnect with many of you who have attended and/or exhibited in the past.

As is our tradition, we are offering a fun giveaway to the first ten visitors to our booth #4659.  Each of those early visitors will receive one of our scarab beetle or dragonfly drawer pulls!

These finely detailed pieces of drawer hardware will add beauty to any application you choose i.e. a desk drawer, a cabinet door, a small box or simply as an objet d'art to enjoy.

Be sure to come by and say hello and view our collection of custom architectural hardware as well as some surprises we have in store.