vine door handles

Seasonal Colors for Door Hardware

While the seasons may appear elusive in this sun- shine state, the slight chill in the air reminds us that autumn has arrived and with it our sense of color naturally drifts to the rich colors of autumn.

Visitors to the wine country in Paso Robles will now be able to see the wide variety of reds, yellows and brown that color the vines of their favorite varietal.
For the less fortunate we hope that our custom hot patinas when applied to our plant pulls will provide a reminder of what this season brings.



For our vine cabinet pull we used green, red and brown dye oxides applied as liquid patinas to create a gradation of colors to the hot surface of our bronze pull. To ensure that the pigmented liquid adhered to the surface we sand blasted the casting prior to heating. As the patina is translucent the golden hues of the bronze still shine through.
The dye-oxides we use are available through SculptNouveau who also offer a full range of sealants suitable for most metals.With our pear and oak leaf cabinet pulls we omitted the pea green dye oxide.


In our earlier career as furniture makers we used a similar technique when creating our japanned vine leaves. The iridescent quality of the leaves was achieved by applying gold leaf to the motif before adding successive layers of translucent color.

Hidden elements of artistic door handles

Intricately detailed bronze door handles cast in investment caliber bronze are our hallmark but often these details go un-noticed.

The Willow heroic door knob is the signature piece in the Willow collection of bronze entry and interior door handles. Cast in bronze the entwined leaves are finely detailed to create a veritable vortex of swirling filigree. Made in 2 sections the backplate alone is 6.5 lbs. with the center a further 2.0 lbs. making a total of 8.5 lbs. of investment grade bronze. While bronze may not be as precious as gold it still holds its value over time especially when artistic value is added. This door knob is 11” tall by 7” wide and 4” deep (279 x178 x 102mm) and its scale deservedly gained it the title “heroic”.

The Grapevine large door is sizeable at 3"W x 4"D x 42 ½"H (76 x 102 x 1080mm) and contains 11 lbs. of bronze. There are some small difficult to spot details in this piece that remind me of Gringling Gibbons the legendary 17th century Royal wood carver whose works are world renowned for the amount and depth of his relief carvings. Gibbons is known for his 3-dimensional carved leaves, flowers and berries but he also carved more lurid hanging fowl and human skulls. While free of human bones the Grapevine pull does have the odd beetle so may not be suited to those with an insect phobia. For the collectors among us this statement piece is part of a limited edition of 100.

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Fibrous gnarly tendrils of bronze cling to the center stem.

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Hidden details

Hidden details