Pairing Beauty with Beauty

Turning 50 can be a challenge but when tempered with a beautiful birthday present the experience can become a happy one.

Back in 2009 a close friend was facing this significant birthday so being  both a designer  of furniture and hardware, Martin Pierce decided to make a significant jewelry box.

As a furniture designer, Martin designed the Ascot series, a collection of  pieces using the Japanning technique to add gold and silver leaf to create Aspen trees  and vine leaves on his buffets and armoires. As its name suggests, Japanese artists and furniture makers developed Japanning to add richness and depth to their work using the reflective luminescence of gold. While the technique also became established in 18th century English furniture making, Martin only became aware of the technique while in  Los Angeles in 1996 making his furniture pieces.

For the 3-tiered jewelry box, Martin used solid cherry with silver and gold leaf. To add texture to the rim of the top Martin used a chip carving technique which he then gold leafed. Each side of the box has a silver leafed tree that is glazed with pigment to create highlights and shadows and to add a  more three-dimensional appearance. In the center of the top and on each lower tier a small butterfly from Martin’s cabinet pull collection is used as a pull.

Small Butterfly from the Insect Flying Creatures Collection of Pulls

Fine furniture making requires a knowledge of wood varieties and of ways of using these to advantage. In the Ascot collection plain sliced walnut and book matched English oak both with limited figuring were used as backdrop to silver Aspen trees and gold leafed autumnal vine leaves.

Open and closed wing moths from the collection of Flying Creature Cabinet Pulls

Carpathian elm burl and walnut burl are heavily figured veneers whose intense patterns require little adornment. In the piece below 1/32” layers of veneer were applied to a pre-shaped curved box made from medium density particle board (MDF). While not a fan of MDF it is a perfect substratum for veneers as it is stable and not prone to shrinking or expansion when there are changes in humidity. To achieve a tight bond the veneer was applied under pressure in a vacuum press with a  polyurethane-based adhesive glue.

Large Butterfly Cabinet Pull

Moths and Butterflies- It is the Season for Insect Cabinet Knobs

We have this year enjoyed a refreshingly wet winter here in LA and as a result have an abundance of flowering trees and foliage so it should come as no surprise that we have a large insect population. While we may not enjoy the large mosquito population the moths and butterflies are a breathtaking delight. Attracted by white light, we usually glimpse hawk moths hanging on our patio wall but this year we are finding them in the house on closets, on shutters and in the bathroom.

Animal and Insect Cabinet Knobs and Pulls

We had a preview of what we could expect by insect life when the long legged ganglycrane flies started arriving. The sheer number of crane flies, which are often mistaken for gigantic mosquitoes, was so large that it has almost cured my phobia of this marginally attractive insect. However, when it comes to moths and butterflies their sheer beauty is undeniable and their shape and color have always been a source of inspiration for Martin. 

While bronze can be colored by applying ferrous nitrate to a heated area to make a yellow amber patina or by applying copper nitrate for blue tone these patinas cannot begin to replicate the complex patterns that moths display in nature. So when portraying moths and butterflies in bronze, Martin has focused on the elegant and dramatic shapes of their wings and bodies and the natural gripping points that occur where the wings join the thorax.

Martin Pierce Hardware in the news

Recently we had the distinct pleasure of meeting Jim Gilbert, the publisher of the online publication Curating Los Angeles (CLA).  He and his lovely wife, Susan, visited our studio/workshop to see how our products are created. Jim became familiar with our products while remodeling his own home and searching for unique cabinet hardware for a guest bath.  He ultimately purchased two of the bronze moth pulls  from our Animal collection and the rest, as they say, is history.

What follows are highlights of our conversation.  You can read the entire interview on their website www.curatingla.com.

Late last year my wife and I undertook a major remodel of our kitchen and master bath. While we were at it, we also decided to upgrade a few other parts of the house, such as our guest bathroom. One goal for that room was to find unique pulls for a wall-mounted cabinet that would make it much easier to open its doors.

While browsing in a local decorative hardware store, we found a line of animal themed pulls that fit the bill. After looking at display samples and thumbing through a catalog, we decided to purchase two beautiful bronze moths. You can see one in the following photo.

While I was very excited to add these distinctive pulls to our bathroom, I was equally thrilled to learn that they were designed and hand crafted in Los Angeles by Martin Pierce Hardware. I immediately wanted to meet the people behind this business, hear their story and learn how they produce their products. So I reached out and set up an appointment with Martin and Anne Pierce, the owners of the business.

What follows is an edited transcript of my in person conversation with Martin and Anne that took place on July 2, 2015. Since my wife joined me for this interview, we both asked the questions. To streamline the conversation in written form, I have consolidated our questions and present them below under the acronym CLA (i.e. Curating Los Angeles).

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CLA: What brought you to Los Angeles?

ANNE: We’re both from Worcester England and we met in London. Martin was trained as a woodcarver and a sculpture, and that was where it all began. We left England in 1980 and came directly to LA. We were actually heading to San Francisco but it didn’t work out. By the time we landed and spent some money there wasn’t any left to get to San Francisco.

CLA: Was your intention to start this business when you arrived here?

ANNE: I don’t know what we were really planning.

MARTIN: We were really here on a mission just to check it out. I brought my carving tools with me. We just started to make furniture initially for people in Beverly Hills – cabinets, chairs. We got some pieces in the Pacific Design Center within just a few weeks.

CLA: How do you two work together?

ANNE: We didn’t use to. My background is law, but I never practiced here. I really wanted out. I eventually took over the business side of things. It became obvious it would be better if I became involved.

CLA: Were you always located in this building?

MARTIN: We originally had a space in downtown LA but then the Northridge earthquake happened. The building cracked down the middle because it was brick.

Anne was in real estate at that time. We were able to buy this place. It made sense. It’s a stucco building and it’s not going to fall down. So we’ve been in this space for about 20 years.

CLA: How did you get from furniture to cabinet hardware?

MARTIN: Because I made a lot of case goods I needed the correct pulls for the drawers and doors. I couldn’t find anything I liked so I made my own. I created the design, carved them in wood and found a foundry that would make them for us. So we sold the furniture with our pulls on them. It just evolved from there.

ANNE: All the pulls originally came from a particular piece of furniture. The moth pulls that you own came from a sideboard.

Eventually we felt that if we’re going to make cabinet pulls why not make door hardware too. It was a big leap because it’s quite different from non-functional pulls. They have moving parts and locks.

CLA: Do you seek out relationships with architects?

ANNE: Absolutely. We sometimes produce a custom piece and then use that design as inspiration for a production line. Pieces evolve over time.

Thank you, Jim, for the lovely article.

Designers can visit our showroom located at:

5433 W. Washington Blvd.

Los Angeles CA  90016

323 939 5929

You can view the complete Animal collection, as well as our entire selection of architectural hardware at www.martinpierce.com.