When is a wine cellar a grotto?

If this sounds like a punch line to a joke, then please do let me in on the joke.

The answer maybe “When you live in Texas”.

I had a lovely conversation this week with a resident of Texas and since we both have accents and are soft spoken I spent a good 3 minutes believing I had misunderstood when she had asked if we made hardware for wine grottoes, eventually I confessed my ignorance and my vocabulary has now grown.

Turning to Wikipedia I discovered that the word comes from the Italian “grotto” and the French word “grotte” both meaning either a natural or man-made cave or cellar not surprising given that both countries have been making wonderful wines for centuries.

Next I turned by attention to the back set of the door that was being custom made in maple with a proposed back set of 2 3/8”. The back set is the distance from the edge of the door to the center point of the back plate or escutcheon. The wider the back plate the deeper the back set will need to be. The center of the back plate is where the lever or knob will be positioned or in the case of a locking door it will also be where the cylinder face is positioned. The handle set components are centrally positioned on the back plate to give symmetry to the trim. The handle set is then positioned on the door stile and if sufficiently wide will be centered but if space is tight it may be positioned closer to the edge of the door.

Door latches and locks are made with standard back sets with 2 3/8” and 2 ¾” being common for tubular latches and 2 ½” and 2 ¾” being common for mortise locks.

The Grapevine entry lever set has a standard back plate that is 4” with the center being 2”. If the door was built with a bore hole for lever/knob at a back set of 2 3/8” then this would leave a mere 3/8” clearance from the outer edge of the back-plate to the edge of the door an area that will often be caught by the door’s stop which is why we recommend a 2 3/4” back set. For doors that have already been drilled for a 2 3/8” back set we do offer a narrower 3 3/8” back plate with a 1 11/16” center.

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.

Fine Details Define Luxury Door Hardware

I have recently been tasked with organizing hundreds of photographs we have for our door handles, cabinet pulls and bathroom accessories and so have been revisiting some of the close -up shots of our more detailed unusual handles and decided to share some of the images in a post.

The phrase “the devil is in the details” sums up perfectly our view on fine door hardware but where did the phrase come from and what does it mean when applied to door hardware? A google search brought me to the site; phrases.org.uk which is devoted to the origin of sayings, and is well worth bookmarking. The phrase probably dates back to the 1800’s and is attributed to several likely authors and originally was expressed as “the God is in the details” and like the modern version suggests that whatever one makes should be done well and with due regard for the finer points or details.

The Willow Collection

As hardware artists this has shaped our door hardware in 2 distinctive ways;

When creating the original pattern Martin Pierce spends hours, days and often weeks carving fine details into the wooden pattern to achieve an intricate piece that will become the parent of all the castings that are made from the mold. Devoting the time it takes to create these artistic details jettisons our work into the luxury market.

The mantra also impacts the lengths we will go to achieve the completeness of a style. In our lizard collection it was important that the ancillary trim for the door lock followed the lizard theme, so we spent time planning and designing a very natural accompaniment.

Similarly, when tasked with a commission for a Willow style cremone latch while the commission did not specify a custom trim for the bolt, this was a detail we felt was needed for completeness.