Art in Nature

The Art in Nature

Were we trying to trace the origins of many of the plants and trees at Huntington Gardens? There were times when our trip to Japan felt like a comparison with the beauty closer to home. 

 We visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Kanazawa destinations all linked by the respect for nature evident in the countless public gardens regardless of the density of the local population. Case in point being the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden and east gardens that flanked the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, a megalopolis of 37 million inhabitants. 

Japan is correctly regarded as the home of the Cherry tree, hardly surprising for a country that has over 600 varieties of Cherry Tree and that celebrates the blooming in April with “Hanami”  a word that translates to the viewing of Cherry blossom, a custom that the Japanese generously share with many US and European visitors.

 All 4 locations had wonderful examples of the most prolific Yoshiro Cherry tree revered for its smaller pale flowers and of the Kanzan Cherry with dark pink flowers and a tree that we also see in Los Angeles.

Shinjuku Gyoen Garden Tokyo

Yoshiro Cherry Tree Asakusa Area Tokyo

The artistry of the public gardens is made possible by the skill and aesthetic that arborists and gardeners bring to their daily tasks. These artisans have a sensibility that follows the natural inclination of the trees and plants they tend. The gardens that result are organic, balanced and beautiful and do not appear contrived or formal.

Grounds at Todai-ji in Nara

Finer Details

The Buddhist temples from those at Asakusa, Tokyo to Todai-ji in Nara were grand in scale and vividly decorated with lacquer and gold leaf. At the entrance a large bowl of water with wooden ladles was used by many to cleanse their hands and minds before entering. Todai-ji in Nara is one of the largest wooden structures in the world measuring 50 square meters and fittingly is home to one of the largest Buddha statues. The Buddha at Todai-ji is also remarkable from a casting and carving perspective and could only be created by the toil of many skilled carvers and metal workers a feat that took decades to accomplish.

Todai-ji Temple Buddha in bronze

 In Kanazawa we visited a home once occupied by a very high-ranking Samurai. The rank of this Samurai was visible in the artisans he was able to employ to carve freezes and detailed nail head covers the latter being firstly carved in  either wood or clay and then cast in bronze. These small details are very typical of what can be seen widely in the Netsuke art in Japanese antiques from clothing and bag toggles to bottle stoppers to belt buckles. For those who appreciate Netsuke more of these wonderful pieces can be seen in Virginia Atchley’s book “The Virginia Atchley collection of miniature arts”

Dragon nail head covers in bronze

We offer a collection of Netsuke door knobs and while they are not as old they too are cast in bronze and feature a dragon.

The home we visited was 200 years old, its predecessors’ structures having being raised to the ground by aggressor Samurai clans. By contrast the garden within was 400 years old and home to the largest Koi fish we have ever seen.

In Japanese culture koi fish ascend from water to become dragons. It’s water based origin helps explain why Japanese dragons do not breathe fire but fire-killing watery vapor an extremely useful talent in a country that historically built its structures in wood.

Fish Door Pulls

Yorkshire Terrier – patina artistry

One of the most challenging tasks when making bronze dog door handles is finding a way to capture the appearance of a breed where the hair color is key to the breed’s identity. This is particularly true for Yorkshire Terriers whose colors include the black, blue, tan and gold of the Black and Tan Terriers and Clydesdale Terriers from which they were bred. The color of the Yorkie also changes, with younger dogs showing more black and tan, that in older dogs fades to paler blues and gold.

While it may be possible to capture some of this color range with clever mixing of pigmented patinas the effect would be to create a “painted” contrived dog head which would detract from the beauty of bronze.

By studying many Yorkie photographs, Carlos, our patina expert, applies a dark patina solution of different intensity into the hair folds on the face and neck and highlights areas for contrast. While the patina does not replace the vibrant color of the Yorkies coat it does suggest the different color bands thereby adding realism.

In researching this breed, I happened upon a post “Famous Dogs in History” that documents the history of this small and very popular breed. While it is common knowledge that the breed was used to rid the Yorkshire coal mines and mills of rats they were also used as ratters in the trenches during WW1.

Yorkies today are the distant offspring of Huddersfield Ben, a show dog and productive stud who fathered many offspring until his demise in 1871. In the late 19th century when England’s coal mines and mills were driving the industrial revolution, the Yorkies popularity took off.

 The silky coat, playful disposition and compact 7lb weight help explain why they are so popular and while they are energetic their size makes them less demanding than our large 65 lb. Pit Bull.

The Industrious Bee

The industrious bee is the perfect symbol for Labor Day

Enjoy your day of rest and take time to appreciate these remarkable creatures in all their colors and sizes.

Creative solutions for a narrow door stile

Whether an interior door or cabinet door, a narrow door stile can be a challenge. Creative positioning of a door pull can be a solution if you plan ahead. You will need to consider all the dimensions of your pull and not merely compare the width of a pull with the available width of  your door stile. The width, depth and height of many pulls differs throughout  a piece and this is especially so where the piece is not a symmetrical or a standard geometric shape.

The Hedgerow heroic trees are good examples of the variations within a piece.

Using Directional Pieces

The Hedgerow trees are a pair and the sway of the trunk is how we chose to designate one left and one right. Nature makes no such distinction which explains why these bronze trees can work pointing left or right as the restraints of the door stile dictate. The design and mounting spots  also allows the tree to be positioned a few degrees  off perpendicular which is helpful when positioning on a narrow stile.

The mock-up below shows a door with a 5” stile so by flipping the direction of the tree the sway of the trunks prevents knuckle collision. As the pull projects out by 1 1/2” it has ample clearance from the face of the door panel for a comfortable grip.

 Re-configuring the pull

Many of our pulls and handles are made in parts which are welded together. All of our dog door knobs are made with the head cast separately to the escutcheon or pull. For a narrow door stile, we recently re-configured the location of the head so that the pull could be positioned horizontally. In the mock-up below the door stile is a narrow 3” but the door rail at  41/2” allowed the dog head to be positioned upright.

Left: reconfigured dog head location Right: playful use of the standard dog head location

With a 3 1/4” distance between ears some planning ahead is needed for a narrow door stile

A complimentary accessory to the dung beetle

After casting and patinating the first bronze dung beetle, we felt it was missing its ball or dung larder for the food needed by the eggs that are laid inside which will grow into hungry grubs.

Dung beetle from the collection of fantasy sculptures

The adult beetle locates dung by smell and he collects and works the dung to create a ball which is rolled to collect layer upon layer of dung. However, the location of the completed dung ball is not always ideal and the ball may need to be moved to a better pre-established nesting area.

In order to move the dung ball, the beetle rolls it backwards by holding it with its rear legs and pushing  with its front legs. Doing it this way has its setbacks, as it cannot see obstacles in its path or see if he is pushing in the right direction.

Dung beetle rear view

As the pathway cannot easily be seen he climbs on top of the dung ball and turns in a circle to get his bearings. To navigate the correct direction, he uses the  position of the sun during the day and position of the stars at night as a compass. These are remarkable insects and are not complete without their ball.

The dung ball we have created is a perforated organic bronze shell, we used our artistic license to create something a little more attractive than the typical dung ball.

The ball is approximately 7 inches in diameter and cast in 3 sections that welded together in the bronze.

The overall sculpture with dung beetle  is 12 inches high.

The beetle navigator’s head and thorax were patinaed a blue green and the wing casing was patinaed dark grey black.

 For more functional creatures please look at our animal cabinet pulls and our netsuke collection of dragon, bee and frog door knobs.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

When developing our line of Dog Knobs, one of the breeds we chose was the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, although not the most popular of breeds, we had one lovely example named Iris who we dearly loved. Iris has since past and now we have another Staffy called Jackson who is a very young, very strong and a very vocal young male. When we were contemplating a second Pit Bull, we spent time meeting rescue dogs to see if Iris would share her home with one and Jackson was her choice. Had we not spent the time checking both dogs for compatibility we may well have repeated a mistake made years before when we foolishly asked our resident Vizsla to share her home with a second Vizsla. While that particular canine bond was always a sensitive one, Jackson and iris got on fabulously and indeed Iris’s longevity and mental acuity we ascribe to Jackson’s puppy playfulness.

While Iris’s markings and ears  were very different to multi-colored perky eared Jackson, they both share the same head shape and extremely powerful jaw with soft and gentle muzzle and disposition.

 We understand that every dog owner loves their particular companion’s characteristics so for those of you with poodles, boxers, French bull dogs Golden retrievers, Labradors or German Shepherds, rest assured we have leash hooks and door knockers available for these breeds.

Happy Halloween with tigers, bugs and bats

Whether for Halloween, or for no other reason that simple fun, enjoy our creations any time of the year. We have a collection of animal and insect cabinet pulls to chose from all cast in bronze and made to order here in Los Angeles.

For those looking for animal inspired door handles we have a collection of lizard, dragon, frog and rabbit door knobs to chose from. Each piece is first rendered in wax before being dipped in silica to create a tough exterior ceramic shell and finally cast in molten bronze. The process is not complete until each piece is “chased” or finely tooled by hand to remove any imperfections. Still not complete, the piece must be burnished so that it can be finished with either a simple oil rubbed patina or a more colorful hot patina. Voila! A unique piece is ready for your home or office door or cabinet.

The tiger door handle is now available as a powder coated piece in a wide variety of colors. If you have a brand color this can be matched by creating a custom powder. As mentioned in a previous piece, we are moving away from illuminated handles and offering all these pieces in  powder coated colors. The dramatic effect is not diminished but this provides a low- tech solution to supply chain problems with small LED lights.

Animal Knobs - Bees, Lizard and Dragon Designs

All are part of the Netsuke Collection, named for the contained round shapes of its members that are similar  to their namesake used in clothing as fasteners.

Bee

The shape of the bumble bee is inherently round but in our artistic representation these attributes have been exaggerated for a more whimsical appearance. That said, we share with many a deep respect for this prodigious insect who is central to the pollination of plants and whose honey I enjoy on a daily basis.

Back in March 2019 we observed a swarm of bees that landed and rested in our Brazilian Pepper Tree along their way to create a new nest for their Queen bee.

 Recently we added another smaller bee to our collection of  flying insect cabinet knobs and again have rounded the contours of this piece to create an easy and pleasing to grasp cabinet pull. In an earlier post you can follow the development of this piece from initial sketch to fully fledged casting.

Lizard

The Anole lizard was the specific lizard that we modeled our door knob on. We chose this species as it has beautiful green tones that we could simulate by carefully applying a … patina to the lizards body and tinny toes.  The lizard as with all our Netsuke door knob sets can be mixed with different animals on either side of the door. Many of our door knobs can be used creatively by mixing different styles in one door set. To see how designer Hilary Zeiss playfully mixed 2 different animals please visit our blog posted on June 4th, 2021.

Dragon

The dragon is the most recent addition to this collection and is my personal favorite.

Beetles in the fictional world of Martin Pierce

A lesser-known area of Martin Pierce’s work is the fictional world occupied by insect and humanoid bronze creatures. To better show these sculptures we are adding new pages to our site and will be creating a new collection page and eventually a payment portal.

Since childhood Martin has been  fascinated by  insects and birds and not just by their obvious beauty but by their ingenuity and dexterity. Wasps, butterflies, moths, and swallows are represented in our company’s door hardware and cabinet hardware collections. However, the scale of  door hardware as well as the functional limitations relegate these forms to incidental turn pieces, thumb latches or cabinet pieces. 

As Martin’s art work is not subject to the same restraints he is using this new freedom to re-imagine both the scale of humans to insects as well as their functional and social relationships.

In December 2021 Martin sourced a deceased aqua blue horned rhinoceros dung beetle from a New Mexico  entomologist. Known affectionately to friends  as Phanaeus Pilatei this particular insect is beautifully colored and powerfully built. The powerful front plate and horn is used as a soil digger that is as proportionately powerful as a bob-cat shovel or bulldozer blade.  Alas, the beauty and mechanical dexterity of Phanaeus is rarely appreciated due to his diminutive size. In Martin’s sculptures and paintings he hopes to shine a light on these undervalued scarabs by portraying then as larger than life and by developing a story that he hopes will be captivating.

True size of Dung beetle 3/4”L x 1/2”H New Model for Dung Sculpture 10”L x 6”H Other Beetle Sculptures

Dragon

The first dragons have emerged from the fiery pit of the foundry and have matured into full fledged beautiful door handles. We have enjoyed seeing these fiery monsters take shape and hope others will enjoy the whimsy of this new piece. A new dragon page has been added to our website and the new family member takes the center spot on our Netsuke page where you will find other animal knobs.

All of our work including our  fanciful pieces must also meet the functional demands of door hardware. To make the dragon casting into a functioning door handle it was fitted with a pre-machined  ferrule that was welded to the open end of the dragon. The inner section of our ferrule is machined to fit an 8mm square spindle. The spindle serves as a connecting rod and allows 2 knobs to be connected to make an interior door set.

The dragon rose will be used as a cylinder, turn piece or knob rose and the center area will be machined according to the size of the center hole needed.

The rose uses scaly dragon knuckles to create 4 decorative rows that meet in the center.

 For the dragon’s turn piece we looked to the Willow collection and found the bundle of Willow leaves to be a perfect match. We were considering a turn piece shaped as a hooked dragon toe but think this may be too kitsch of a statement.

Creating a simple bracket to secure a door lever

Now that Jackson, our latest Pitbull family member has turned one we realize that his name needs to be changed to Houdini! We had thought our front garden gate was a sturdy secure barrier that would keep us safe as it is fortified with a mortise lock made by Accurate, the industry leader in security locks. What we had not foreseen was that the gate could be opened from the inside by a cunning canine capable of standing on his hind legs while using his front paws to depress the gate lever.
If our dog training had been more successful and the commands of “come” and “stay” had worked then we might have been amused by his antics.
We installed Accurate’ s 9148 series mortise a well-designed mechanism that has an egress rocker that allows you to keep the gate unlocked, a useful function when your spouse is at home, and you want to pop out for a stroll. Faced with this unexpected problem our choice was to either replace the lever with a knob set and install a new mortise or find a way to outsmart Jackson. We chose the latter option as we enjoy our lizard entry set and so designed a simple restraining bracket for the inside lever that may help other homeowners facing the same problem.

Our simple restraining bracket works well for a mortise lock that is configured for an exterior thumb-latch and interior lever. The exterior thumb-latch when depressed retracts the latch that keeps the gate closed and when gripped allows you to pull the gate open without using the lever. The same bracket could be made to work on a simple passageway lever using a tubular latch but would only work if the spindle was split so that the exterior lever could retract the latch even when the interior lever is fixed in place by the bracket. The bracket works well for dogs as they lack a thumb to push the bracket down and thus cannot release the lever, but it would not work for dexterous children. The bracket can easily be made by hobbyists using half rod stock which is available at most hardware stores.

Simple bracket hobbyists can make using metal half rod to secure a door lever

While Jackson may be a challenging dog he is a classic Pitbull and his likeness is available as a door knob or pull or door knocker.

Dragon and Netsuke Door Knobs

Dragon and Netsuke Door Knobs

Dragons appear in fictional literature and are brilliantly described in the witty tale “Guards,Guards!” by Terry Pratchett. More recently they were portrayed as loyal protective demons in “Game of Thrones”. So, it will come as no surprise that we are adding a dragon door knob to our Netsuke collection.

Credit also needs to be given to Dr. Lisa Allen who ordered a Netsuke bumble bee and asked if we had plans for a dragon knob. We had not been planning an addition to the Netsuke collection so as an alternative, suggested Lisa order the lizard knob. If one looks at the portrayal of dragons in different times and cultures they range from serpentine winged creatures to horned scaly lizard-like creatures not unlike the Komodo “dragon” lizard found in Indonesia. Lisa was not to be persuaded by my lizard argument, so Martin turned to his sketch pad to wait for dragon inspiration.

Original Pattern Carved in High Density Foam - Finer Details then Carved into Applied Gesso

What follows is an account of how the dragon knob was designed, carved and by use of lost wax casting will soon take flight as a bronze door knob.

As the Dragon knob will become part of the Netsuke collection we used the compactness inherent in this collection as a focal point. This meant that the dragon had to fold in and around itself and cling tightly to the center of the knob to form an ergonomically pleasing shape that had few jagged protrusions. The tight compact and smooth design characterizes the bee, lizard, rabbit and frog knobs and is why the collection is named Netsuke after the early smooth animal toggles used as fasteners for garments and satchels in traditional Japanese clothing.

Cats, bats and frogs as enchanting familiars – Happy Halloween

While cats were often celebrated as symbols of good luck and were revered in Egyptian and Asian cultures, in Europe they took on a sinister role as the companions or familiars of witches who cast malevolent spells. It seems that this undeserved reputation took hold with the advent of the black plaque that devastated Europe in the 1600’s. This is rather ironic given that cats are superb predators of rats and indirectly of the fleas they carry making them extremely useful companions that are good for one’s health.
Witches suffered a similar plight and while the verb bewitched is synonymous with “enchanted” “charmed” “beguiled” it is also used to suggest evil powers and malevolent spells.

The negative image of witches spread to other creatures with which they were associated such as frogs and bats. Frogs and bats are both nocturnal and often live-in swamps, muddy ponds and caves, facts that helped advance their negative place in folklore.
Like many we like all these creatures and have portrayed them more favorably in our animal cabinet pulls and cat themed door knobs.
The 3 cats shown in our banner are Persian, Rag Doll and Common cat. Cast in solid bronze and patinaed and then sealed with an oil rubbed finish.

Our frog and bat cabinet pulls are made as left or right facing which allows for a more creative placement on cabinet doors that open to the left and right.

New Carp Fish Door Pull Takes Shape

The design for our illuminated fish handle was a cutout carp fish where sections were removed so that the LED light could shine through to create a colored fish.

We recently had an inquiry for a fish door pull, and suggested we modify the illuminated Carp to make a solid bronze Carp only to find that the client was a restaurateur whose menu included Chinook (King) salmon. As our creative minds were already charged, we went back to the drawing board and decided to designed a new non-illuminated Carp door handle to add to our door hardware collections. As the new handle will be a door pull, we had to redesign our existing carp to make it more 3 dimensional and without sharp fins. As the carp’s distinctive markings would no longer be lit by colored LED’s we had to capture these markings by creating recessed areas that when patinaed will be visible as markings. We are planning to cast the handle in bronze a medium that can be patinaed in dark and light tones through an oil rubbed finish or in a dramatic verdigris or red/brown hot patina.

As the new carp design is smooth and not textured, we may also cast it in stainless steel and powder coat the recessed areas black or powder coat the entire fish using 2 colors one for the recessed sections, the other for the upper surface. Stainless steel is a good alternative alloy to bronze but the 316 grade we use is extremely hard and very difficult to sand and polish. We use this grade as it contains molybdenum which makes the alloy corrosion resistant when exposed to sea air that contains chloride and thus the ideal medium for ocean properties. This medium is less suited to highly textured pieces and explains why our modern door handle designs with their cleaner lines are where we use this medium.

As the carp design was merely 12”in height and as Martin Pierce is a sculptor, he preferred to make this pattern from solid high-density foam.

French bulldog gifts for owners

Why did we include the French Bulldog in our line of door dog knobs and door hardware? Well, the breed is definitely cute and its round head is perfect for use as a door knob but the reason is a more commercial one as the breed is the second most common breed for dog owners in the US and UK and hopefully will be one of our best-selling dog themed products.

French Bulldog Suitable for most Interior Doors

Thanks to Wikipedia I learned that the French bulldog was the result of English Lace workers from Nottingham who emigrated to Normandy France after their industry was decimated by the English industrial revolution of the 1800’s. These displaced migrants brought with them their English bulldogs and the ones they took tended to be smaller. It would appear that the local population were especially attracted to those dogs that had upward pointing ears and this characteristic was selectively bred into the breed that became the French bulldog.

French Bulldogs are often kept as companions, they rarely bark, and the breed is known for being both patient and affectionate and good at living with other dog breeds. As they are very people oriented, they tend to be easier to train than many breeds and clearly their size makes them ideal for smaller homes.

We began the French Bulldog design with a free-hand pencil drawing as Martin found it easier to plan the sculpted head with a drawing that focused on the creases and lines that are part of this breeds character. The drawing was then traced onto vellum and the side view was outlined on a 3” x 3” block of high-density foam. The sculpture took a few days to carve and on completion was sealed with grey primer. The subsequent 2- part mold was used to create the red wax replica shown here.

Sculpted French Bulldog Head used for the mold from which the red wax head was poured. A wax block was added to the chin and will become the gate through which the molten bronze will flow.

Bumble bee cabinet knobs and bumble bee door knobs

We have completed casting our new bumble bee cabinet pull which was developed in response to the popular demand shown for our much larger bumble bee door knob. In an earlier post we documented how the original pattern and molds were created and now we are pleased to share photos of our first pieces which were patinaed in a dark finish and then sealed with oil and wax. As with all of our cabinet hardware the patina and how it is applied is an artistic process and one where we spend a lot of time deciding how best to bring out the details of each piece, where to add and remove color to create shadows and highlights, which parts to burnish which to make dull.

Bumble bees unlike honey bees do not produce a surplus of honey that can be harvested, and they do not live-in large colonies in symmetric organized hives. The bumble bee instead creates its nest opportunistically by using tree holes, rodent nests, leaf litter to form a seemingly disheveled dwelling. The nests may be easy to miss as they use leaves, animal hair and grass to create a layer of insulation to regulate the temperature of their dwelling and prevent it from overheating.

We chose the bumble bee over the honey bee for our hardware designs as its rotund shape makes it easy to grip. The honey bee, by comparison has a slender abdomen and pointed wings and a body shape that is closer to that of many wasps. Not surprisingly as insect lovers we also have 2 styles of wasp which for the non-purist can be paired with the bee to make a cabinet hardware  statement.

Bull terrier - a new dog and new collection of dog themed hardware

The Staffordshire bull terrier in our Dog Door Knob collection, was based on the good looks of our American Staffy Iris when she was in her prime. Now she is in her later years still looking good, still healthy, just moving slower, ring any human bells?

Iris at 12 what a beauty

We felt she could do with a pick me up and some company, so…. we rescued a three-month-old male Pitbull mix, we have named Jackson, who is now seven months.

Action Jackson full of energy -

He is a lot of energy and fun, and although he torments Iris to play with him, she likes him, tolerates him, and often chases him around the house.

He is a lovely character but is about to start some serious training as he will be a strong muscular dog who at this point seems unaware of his own powerful body.

Jackson doesn’t have the same type of face as Iris, but they are both staffordshire terrier mixes and are loosely defined as Pit bulls. The Pit Bulls in our neighborhood are primarily rescue dogs and they vary considerably as to height, weight and litheness. The registered American Pit Bull is recognized by the United Kennel Club and is described as typically between 17 to 21 inches across the shoulders with a weight ranging from 30 to 60 lbs. It is too early to know how big and heavy Jackson will become and seeing him daily we don’t notice his incremental changes which is why we are keeping a family photo album. Iris in her prime years weighed 50 lbs. and was extremely muscular and well-toned. At present Jackson clocks in at 45lbs and still has a lot of skin to fill with muscle.

Our dog knob collection is being well received by dog lovers and we will be adding a Pug and Yorkshire terrier to this collection of dog door knobs, door hooks, door pulls and door knockers.

A bumble bee cabinet knob takes shape at Martin Pierce studios

We are adding a bumble bee to our cabinet pull collection of insect pulls. We receive a lot of inquiries from homeowners who want to continue using our bee door knob on kitchen and bathroom cabinetry but at a hefty 3”high  the scale simply does not work. So, starting with our rotund bee knob we have scaled this detailed casting down and made a few other changes to create a modest but hefty 1 ¼” cabinet knob. The original pattern shown here was carved by Martin Pierce in solid blue jewelers wax and a one part mold was used to create red wax replicas. Once shelled the wax copies will be melted and lost to create a vessel for molten bronze.

Bumble bees, contrary to the way we have portrayed the bee door knob, do not produce honey and do not have a honey comb. The bumble bee does create a nest with a small number of chambers for the queen bees eggs and another chamber or pot to store nectar for the developing bees.

Using considerable artistic license to show case our bumble bee door knob

Only the queen bee and female workers have the ability to sting and this occurs rarely unless the bees are antagonized.  The typical life span for a worker bee is 28 days or less but the Queen and hive have an annual life span with the Queen laying eggs throughout the year. During the summer months the Queen will lay Queen eggs which when they emerge will mate with the male drones who will develop a new hive and bee colony.

Happy July 4th

We are celebrating the 4th with a long weekend and hope you are able to do the same. Ours will be spent comforting our older dog Iris, who like many dogs finds the noise of fireworks nerve racking. This year she is a little more fortunate as one of the advantages to her mature years is her diminished hearing and with a lot of ambient grey noise from electrical appliances we hope she will not hear the booms from city’s fireworks. For all the dog owners out there we wish you and your dogs a safe stress-free holiday.

To see other dog and cat themed door knobs visit our dog and cat pages.

Scaly breasted munia and Bulbul Sightings Hollywood Hills

In April 2020 we posted our sightings of the Black crested Red-whiskered Bulbul in our garden and this wonderful bird continues to flourish. To our delight this year flowers from our guava tree have been feeding a couple as they build a nest in a fellow birder neighbors tree. One of the few upsides to the pandemic was the time we and other neighbors compared sightings and notes on birds in our Hollywood Hills neighborhood and thanks to one neighbor we have now spotted the Scaly-breasted Munia. The Munia also known as the Spice Finch or Nutmeg Mannikin is a pretty chestnut colored bird with scale like breast feathers and is a gregarious one that tends to be seen in small groups. While we have not noticed this bird until now, it is a well-established non-indigenous species that thrives in sufficient numbers as to be counted on the California State Bird’s List.
As can be seen from the photos here, the Munia is more than happy to eat seeds from a bird feeder and the seed level drops significantly when the flock stop by.

Animal themed door or grand cabinet handle

When we replaced our water starved grass garden with drought resistant vegetation we were concerned that this would reduce the birds who frequent it but the contrary has proven true.
Our prolific honeysuckle and Kangaroo paw plant attracts countless Rufus and Anna Hummingbirds and the magnificent flower of our variegated Agaves attract yellow rumped warblers.
While not as striking in color, our feathered double headed bird door pull does possess drama and texture and is a central piece in our cabinet hardware collection.