Bird inspired door handles

Even a modest garden can provide an abundance of stimulus for the patient artist. An avid bird watcher knows that patience and stillness are the main requirements for successfully observing and photographing these garden gems. But even stillness may not be enough to take a snapshot  of nesting Bewick wrens who are on their guard for anything suspicious. To take this shot, Martin Pierce had to hold his iPhone to the side of his head and avert his eyes from the subject.

Photograph by Martin Pierce

A long 400mm lens is also useful and allowed Martin to capture this from a safe distance.

Photograph by Martin Pierce

The bird house was made by Martin 10 years ago, but this is the first time Bewick wrens have turned it into a nest. Possibly the dilapidated nature of the box and debris of leaves and spiders’ webs were exactly the type of décor needed to make a less conspicuous  home. As Bewick wrens typically mate for life and return to the same nesting ground Martin is hoping to see the generations that may follow.

While observing and photographing birds is undoubtedly a rewarding past time, they are for Martin an endless source of inspiration.

When I looked back at some of Martin’s old sketch books it came as no surprise to find these quick sketches.

Living in the Hollywood Hills we  often see red tail hawks who prey on rodents and lizards which are abundant. The image below shows a red tail hawk carrying a squirrel in its talons and being pestered by a crow.

Date of Original Sketch 1990’s

Here crows are shown in flight and again mobbing  a red tail hawk.

Date of Original sketch 1990’s

 Bulbuls that are not native to California can now be seen on a regular basis in Hollywood and Martin’s patience paid off recently when he was able to catch this shot.

Photograph by Martin Pierce

While I have not seen any recent additions to his current sketch book he has divulged that a bird may soon make it to his drawing board as a model for a new Netsuke door knob. That said, the blue jay may also be a contender albeit the scale will have to be significantly reduced from the current large door pull.

Orchid Door Handle

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Kellie Beaubelle a designer in Orinda, CA who was  looking for unusual hardware, what followed was a highly imaginative collaboration of design talents.

The project began with a finite plan for one entry  handle set, but once installed, the scope was expanded to include all the exterior doors that were fabricated by the door maker with Anderson multi-point locks. To accommodate the multi-point mechanism, we created a new turn piece design that has been added to our Hedgerow and Willow multi-point sets and which we will be expanding  to our other multi-points collections.

The project did not end with the entry doors as once the creative genie was out of the bottle Kellie wanted to see what artistic pieces could be added to the master and guest bedrooms. In a previous post we have documented how the Venus slipper orchid was redesigned by Martin Pierce to create a grand scale door pull which for Kellie’s project has been used for 3 large vanity drawers.

Once the concept was approved, we worked with Kellie’s vanity plan to create a mock-up idea showing how the orchid would look on the cabinet drawers. The pattern development and mold creation have been documented in 2 previous posts but now we can share photos of the piece cast in bronze and also nickel plated in a satin finish.

Plan drawing courtesy Kellie Beaubelle

Orchid handles added by Martin Pierce

The Venus slipper orchid has a pronounced stamen and labellum that project out from the body of the flower and in the casting, it is these points that are gripped to pull open the door or drawer.