Contemporary Door Handle Meets Art Nouveau source

We have added a new video to our video gallery and now have 2 videos that show the full range of door handles that use tree motifs. The latest video is short but still manages to show the three dimensional nature of this iconic handle which is shown in brushed stainless steel and as a handle set, with one left and one right tree.

The video shows the fluid nature of this sculpture and the close up shots focus on the depth of the details in the leaf, root and canopy areas of the tree design. By panning across the tree trunks and up the profile of the canopy our video director, Jeff Jenkins, has been able to capture the shadows cast by the leaf canopy. The video was shot very simply using mainly natural light and this in conjunction with the dark ash doors gives the video an old moody black and white quality.  The mood of the video is in contrast to the medium of stainless steel which it often pegged for more contemporary settings.  By shooting the video this way, Jeff Jenkins shows us how thin the line is between the older rich and colorful style of Art Nouveau and the current trend towards monochromatic linear designs. 

See Collection

While the Hedgerow tree is shot in stainless steel, for those preferring the warmer tones of bronze, fear not, as this piece will always be available in the timeless medium of bronze.

All of our work is designed and made in Los Angeles and can be seen by prior appointment at our studio.

Unique Door Handles in Steel - A New Spin on Hedgerow

We have been focusing on re-vamping our website and in doing so have been developing new pieces, new videos and new finishes for some of our signature pieces. The Hedgerow door pull is perhaps our most well known and iconic piece that represents our love of trees and natural forms. As you may know the new Hedgerow illuminated tree is an ongoing work that is expected to be completed by years end but since that is months away we thought it was time to revisit the Hedgerow collection and so are now casting select pieces in steel. The cooler tones of stainless steel play well in a modern setting and work for both residential and commercial projects. While this Hedgerow tree is not part of our collection of luminaires it can be lit by directional accent lights to create a dramatic statement.

Tree Door Handle A Signature Piece in the Hedgerow Collection

The 3 dimensional nature of this piece and the detailed sculptural tree canopy are very difficult to capture in a flat 2 dimensional photo so we will be releasing a short video soon which will more adequately capture the depth and scale of this steel tree.

By casting select Hedgerow pieces in steel, a rust resistant medium, we hope that these nature inspired pieces may take root in coastal locations!

The Hedgerow tree and 5 other signature pieces are also making their way to our new banner gallery that can be viewed on our website.

All of our work is made here in Los Angeles using the lost wax method of casting and each piece is finished by hand to create a truly unique piece.

Unique Handles - How Form Follows Nature

Like many others we have just visited Borrego Springs to see the flowering cacti season which is now nearing it’s end for spectacular blooms. The red ocotillo are still to be seen with their spiky protrusions guarding their bright tubular flowers and some of the yellow brittlebrush were also in bloom but as we discovered there is more to the desert than colorful flowers.

Morphic Cabinet Handles

When hiking through the sandy gravel terrain over hills and into dry stream beds what was equally beautiful to see were the dried mummified remains of the jumping cholla and the wreath like roots of the dying ocotillo plants. The jumping cholla bears an incredibly strong textural similarity to our Morphic door hardware and you would be forgiven for suspecting that Martin used this as his inspiration for this series. In truth the Morphic collection was consciously  inspired by ocean coral but Martin Pierce is quick to admit that a stray image of the cholla plant may well have been lingering in the depths of his subconscious. In any event Anza Borrego springs is an inspirational haven for all and well worth a visit.

The area is dramatic and arid and at this time of year still not too hot to hike in during the early morning and evening hours. Borrego Springs can also be extremely windy and this helps keep the air clean and makes the night sky perfect for star gazing.

Decorative Door Handles Inspired By Bees

This has been an amazing spring and we owe the abundance of blossoms and in particular wisteria to these past wet winter months followed by warm spring days. The variety and scent of the blossoms in the Hollywood Hills is almost over powering and I wonder if the local bee population has a weight problem this year as the bee legs are laden with the weight of pollen making their bumbly flight even more miraculous.

In the photograph below I hope I have captured the size and weight of this cascading wisteria blossom and the bumbling carpenter bee that hovers in the foreground. The long running California drought motivated Martin and I to replant our garden with drought tolerant plants and the wisteria creeper was a prized addition. While our wisteria plant took at least two years to become established we are hoping that it will continue to thrive and attract bees, cactus flies and both resident Anna humming birds as well as migratory black-chinned humming birds.

The Carpenter bee is so named for the nests that they excavate in the dead wood of trees and man-made power poles though they are also known to opportunistically hijack and improve upon the holes left by other insects.

Bee Door Knob

The bumble bee is part of our Netsuke collection of animal door handles which includes a lizard, a frog and rabbit. All of our work is made to order and designed and manufactured here in Los Angeles.

Making Unique Cabinet Knobs from 2 Dimensional Art

I have recently been sorting through our digital collection of Martin Pierce’s drawings and wanted to share these with our blog followers. As a door hardware designer, our clients who are themselves designers frequently ask us to create unusual cabinet knobs as statement pieces for residential projects and also for public spaces in commercial settings. If we are to be awarded the commission, then the first task is to come up with a beautiful drawing that will capture the interest of the designer. Some designers will have already sketched out their own ideas but for the majority of commissions we are given little to go by, which we like, as this gives Martin a broad creative license. We have shared with you how our Hawaiian door pulls began with a commission by designer Debbie Zylstra who was in search of cabinet knobs for an entertainment center and how the designs we created needed to incorporate local floral and bird life.

See Collection

The drawings above were the basis of the Hawaiian bird pulls and were approved as drawn. The drawings were done by hand old school fashion on a drawing board and then colored using a variety of colored pencils of the type available at any art supply store. While Martin does find some of the tools in Photoshop helpful, such as the transform and copy functions, his designs always begin with a free hand drawing, either in his sketch book, or on a larger scale on his drawing board.

Golden Door Handles

While we have on occasion silver plated our designs thereby earning the description of luxury door hardware, the appearance of opulence can be achieved in silicon bronze. We often visualize bronze door handles in darker more antique oil rubbed finishes but cast silicon bronze has much richer golden tones. Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper with varying amounts of silicon, zinc and iron and trace amounts of other metals and metalloids including aluminum, manganese and phosphorous.

While the high amount of copper gives the bronze casting its rich color, the remaining components combine to make the bronze a strong, durable and rust resistant alloy. The strength of the cast bronze and its dense pore free surface allow us to achieve a highly polished finish that looks like gold.  We first started using this high polish finish with our cabinet frogs in an effort to emulate the silky glossy appearance of tree frogs which were the inspiration for their design.

Lately we have started casting pieces from our contemporary Morphic collection in bronze rather than stainless steel. When cast in bronze these Morphic cabinet pulls take on a decidedly Moorish quality.

Modern Door Pulls Morphic

However, while bronze does not rust it does tarnish over time and if left un-sealed with develop its own unique patina with tones ranging from dark bronze to green depending on the chemical properties in the surrounding air. However, very much like silver ware the piece can be re-buffed or polished to bring back the sparkle. If the piece is a door handle then daily use will also buff the areas that are constantly being touched. 

Looking Forward to 2017 With New LED Lighting

We are looking forward to a new year with new products and with new ventures which we wanted to preview in the last days of what proved to be an interesting and creative year.

Through-out 2016 Martin Pierce has been busy designing, sculpting and developing prototypes for his new LED illuminated door handles, cabinet pulls and sconces. It would be an understatement to say that this has proven to be a multi-faceted challenge but thankfully our work has been rewarded and just before the Christmas break we received the great news that our products had received UL approval. We will write more about this process in upcoming posts.

Dragon Egg Sconce with LED Light

In 2017 we will be photographing and making videos of these new pieces and our hope is that designers will share these with their discerning clients. To further that goal in 2017 we will be partnering with the well-established Interior Design site www.interiordesign.net and their partner Architonic to launch our new illuminated door handles as well as our new door hardware so that designers can easily access this material on this site as well as on our home site.

In 2017 we will be represented in Moscow by EMPORIO.RU. a showroom known for luxury hardware brands. We were approached in late 2016 by Mikhail Grigoriev, general director of EMPORIO RU who was drawn to the craftsmanship and detail of our castings and who was searching for more original works that are not available in Russia. We are looking forward to this new venture and to working with such a well-respected showroom with offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg and with projects both within Russia and abroad in Monaco, France, Switzerland and even here in the US.

Emporio.Ru can be reached through their site at: www.emporio.ru

Trees That Inspire Door Handles

Not all trees lend themselves or rather bend themselves to work as luxury door handles so when creating a tree door handle we use considerable artistic license.  With our Hedgerow design we blended several different trees and tree parts. Which trees inspired us? I am reluctant to name any one tree in part because this iconic design reminds different designers of different trees but also because the design came from Martin’s imagination and not from studying any particular tree. So, if the handle reminds you of a California Cypress or gnarly wild oak or even of a Bunyan tree, then you are right.

Heroic Trees Hedgerow Collection

We are in the process of adding different finishes to the Hedgerow tree and as you may know from previous posts are also developing a new tree design which if all goes well will be lit with interior LED diodes, so please do follow our post for progress reports. As with the Hedgerow heroic handle, while the new design is instantly recognizable as a tree the family it belongs to is imaginary.

The canopy of the Hedgerow tree shown above flows from the trunk of the tree and it is pitched and so that the back of the canopy lies flat and flush to the front of the door. The tree handle is attached to the door by through bolts that screw from the inside of the door into the back of the canopy.

The gnarly Bunyan reminiscent roots also flow from the trunk and similarly have a flat back where another though bolt supports the hefty handle that is cast from 10lbs of solid bronze.

Banyan tree roots inspiration for Hedgerow Pull mounting point

Color As An Accent for Bronze Door Handles

As a large portion of our door handles are cast in bronze we have the ability to add subtle shading to the pieces by oxidizing them and then sealing them with oil and wax. However, those of you who are art collectors will also know that bronze can be finished with more sophisticated colored patinas. Some of these colors, specifically Verde Gris, will often develop naturally on bronze and we have all seen the beautiful blue green hues on the domed roofs of old churches and civic buildings that have developed after decades of exposure to the elements. As our time scale does not permit the patina to develop naturally we are able to create several colors of patina by applying pigments directly to our bronze. To ensure an intense color that permeates the surface we heat the bronze up to 200° and apply the pigment by hand often with a very fine brush. As you can see from the picture below we add a pea-green pigment over the body and toes of our lizard door handle to approximate the color of the Anole lizard.

Green Patina For Patio Lizard Door Lever

We use these hot patinas typically on our nature inspired door handles and cabinet pulls. For an autumnal appearance on our sycamore leaves we use an ox red pigment and for our wasp cabinet pulls we turn to a mustard pigment. Our use of hot patinas on bronze began when we started making our wasp cabinet pulls for our limited edition Ascot series of case goods. The furniture pieces in this collection are all decorated with vine leaf motifs created using a form of japanning, a technique that uses gold leaf over casein to create a raised motif which is then hand painted with colored glazes made by suspending pigments in turpentine. The bronze wasps, some with closed wings and the leader with open wings were made as the finishing touch to the Ascot Highboy.  

Custom Door Handle Videos

At long last we are making videos for our custom door handles and will be sharing these with you both on our new Video Gallery and on YouTube and DailyMotion.

The first video was shot on location at a private residence and features our Lizard Entry Thumb latch set.

The big advantage to showing our custom hardware in this format is you get to see and understand what we mean by “functional art”. The lizard sculpture acts as a large bronze door pull and you grip the body of the lizard to open the door or in this case front gate. Above the lizard there is a sculpted bronze back-plate reminiscent of stone, on which a butterfly is perched. The butterfly is also a functioning thumb latch and when depressed it opens the gate by releasing the mortise lock.  On the reverse side or inside of the gate we used a smaller lizard sculpture to act as the door lever and to continue the natural theme mounted the lever on a bronze back-plate styled to resemble tree bark. Lizard food, in this case a small beetle, is used as a whimsical bronze turn piece that functions to either open or close the deadbolt.

As the lizards have been made as lefts and rights they will also will work well on door double doors or gates.

In this particular project we created custom grills at the top of the gate in the form of flax stems and appropriately added a left and right bronze frog to complete the entrance. As Martin Pierce is also a wood carver he carved a wooden raven head to house the chain for the house bell.

While I hope you find this description clear I hope you will agree that the video does a better job of capturing the three dimensional reality of this set.       

While videos are fun to watch they can be difficult to make  so our thanks go to Jeff Jenkins whose patience as  director and skill as a videographer made this project a success. Jeff’s work can be seen at;

What To Consider When Choosing Door Handles For A Home Renovation

A lot will depend on how you are planning to use the door handles, questions you may want to consider;

1.     How many doors are you planning to re-furbish - is this a statement piece for an entry door or are there several doors where you will be using the same style of design?

2.     How eclectic are you? Do you like to continue a particular style through the entire home or do you like to mix and match styles?

Interior And Exterior Door Knob Sets

3.     Is the door exterior or interior - if an exterior door, is it protected from the elements or will it be exposed to rain, snow or sea spray as these will contribute to the corrosion and rust of the handle. While bronze does not rust, it will over time develop a patina and is often referred to as a “living finish”. Stainless steel is corrosion resistant and while not rust proof, 316 stainless steel is the preferred alloy for coastal properties exposed to sea water.

4.     Does the door need to lock - and does the door handle manufacturer provide the handles you are considering for all types of function from locking front and privacy doors to non-operating "dummy" handles that are typically fixed and often used to complete the symmetry for example of double doors where one handle operates to open and close the door and the “dummy” handle is used more as a grip or pull.

5.     Are there special needs - to consider making it important that the door handle be easy to grip and that levers not be too heavy to depress

6.     Are your doors unusual -  are they extremely deep or shallow, bare in mind that a typical door in the US is 1 3/4" to 2" thick and while many handles can accommodate other depths, the manufacturer may have an up charge to create shorter or longer spindles or through bolts.

7.     Unforeseen charges to consider -  the  lock is often not included in the cost of the door set but this varies with manufacturer, for example  we do include the costs for tubular latches but not the cost of the mortise lock made by Accurate.  The installation of a door set, particularly one that locks, will need to installed either by a contractor or locksmith.

HOUSING TRENDS AND DOOR HARDWARE CHOICES

We have lived through the Great Recession and appear at least on the housing scene, to be close to pre- 2007 levels for home prices and new construction. This bodes well for the construction industry and by extension those of us involved in making door hardware and lighting.

We look at housing trends so that we can assess who is buying what. It is useful to know that millenials account for 35% of all purchases and that they are buying homes in the 1,200 s.f. to 1,650 s.f. range and that both younger and older baby boomers are downsizing so they too are looking at smaller houses. Both groups seem to prefer more open spaces and more baby boomers now need a home/office as they are deferring retiring, or at least moving some of their work home.

Small but tactile cabinet knob helps define a home/office

As a designer of door handles the move to smaller housing may mean fewer Mc Mansions but it may mean more carefully selected door handles chosen specifically and with thoughtfulness to define a particular space. In reality, as a US manufacturer and because we only cast in premium stainless steel and silicon bronze, our work was and still is necessarily “high end”.  So even in the heyday of the McMansions our work was more commonly used as the statement piece for the entry door or decorative accompaniment to the guest bedrooms or the master suite. In short I feel the trend towards smaller is a positive one with door hardware being chosen for key areas based on style, durability and  with a focus on a eclectic mix of designs.

Sources used by the writer in this post included:

Neil Irwin’s piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/upshot/the-housing-market-is-finally-starting-to-look-healthy.html

And; https://www.nahb.org/en/research/design/housing-trends-for-baby-boomers.aspx

Post written by Anne Lauder

Spotlight on architectural hardware collections at Martin Pierce---Morphic

One of the more popular lines of architectural hardware at Martin Pierce Hardware is our Morphic collection.  One look at the sleek design and interesting texture of these pieces and it is easy to understand it's popularity.

On our website we describe it this way: "Fluid contemporary designs are the basis for this innovative style of decorative door hardware. Cast in steel, these hardware pieces are extremely contemporary but when cast in bronze the effect is reminiscent of the Art Nouveau style."

The openwork design of this grouping makes it the perfect candidate for innovative customization options like the addition of a powder coated color:

or an LED lighting feature that will be debuted at this years HD Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This collection also underwent some color and form changes for the new Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.  More on this exciting project to come.

The collection also includes large and small pulls for cabinetry and furniture, passageway knobs, entry way levers that can be adapted to meet ADA standards and our majestic entry door pulls that will make a great first impression to all who enter a residence, hotel, spa or other hospitality project.  Here is a sampling of the collection:

To view the entire Morphic and other collections of custom hardware, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Designers please stop by our showroom at:

5433 W. Washington Blvd.

Los Angeles, Ca  90016

323 939 5929

Our location at the 2015 HD Expo

It is hard to believe that the 2015 HD Expo is exactly 60 days from today!  The first quarter of this year has just flown by what with preparations for the Expo as well as working on other projects.

We have been assigned our booth location.  You can find us in booth #2277  in the Exhibitor's Hall.   We are excited to share with you some new products (more on these later) as well as display some of your favorites from past shows.  Suffice it to say our Morphic Heroic door pull has undergone some amazing changes!

As we have done in past shows, we will be awarding to the first ten visitors to our booth one of our silver plated orchid cabinet knobs.  Pretty and feminine and wonderfully detailed, this knob will add an elegant touch to your home or office.

And be sure and check out our new lighting collection that we are debuting at this year's Expo.  Game of Thrones fans will enjoy the new designs.

To view many of our architectural hardware collections, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Designers can visit our showroom located at:

5433 W. Washington Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA  90016

323 939 5929

A look back at past giveaways at the HD Expo

We recently announced that the first ten visitors to our booth in the Exhibitor's Hall at the 2015 HD Expo will receive one of our exquisitely detailed silver plated orchid drawer pulls to use as they please.

We have made it a tradition to award a piece of our custom hardware each year we attend the HD Expo.  We thought it might be fun to revisit past giveaways:

In 2014 we awarded twenty lucky visitors to our booth their choice of either the whimsical dragonfly pull or our small scarab beetle pull.

Small scarab pull from Martin Pierce Hardware Los Angeles CA 90016

The spring of 2013 found us delighting ten lucky winners with our beautifully detailed butterfly pull.

Our new at the time bronze daisy pull was chosen as the giveaway for the 2012 HD Expo.

And it all started with the fun polished brass frog pull we awarded to the first ten visitors to our booth during our inaugural visit to the 2011 HD Expo.

Were you one of the lucky winners?

To view all of these items or our entire collection of architectural hardware, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Designers, please stop by our showroom located at:

5433 W. Washington Blvd Los Angeles CA 90016

Tel: 323 939 5929

The amazing future of 3D printers and how we use them

We recently attended the 3D Printer World Expo held at the Marriott convention center in. Burbank California, which was very interesting and enlightening. At present Martin is sculpting and creating the old fashioned way:

• Sketch by hand an idea showing it from 3 perspectives or elevations.
• Draw over each elevation on a 1"x 1" square grid

• 

• Use a sheet of tracing paper to make a grid that is twice as big as the first grid i.e. 2" x 2" squares to make our initial sketch twice as big by free hand drawing the same lines on the bigger grid  and so on for all the grid sections. We will continue this process for all 3 perspectives.
• We then take the tracing paper elevations or perspectives and trace them onto a block of wax or wood
• Finally we begin to shape the piece with cutting tools, basically bandsaws, chisels etc.

As far as I can tell, this "old-fashioned" grid concept is at the heart of 3D printing and 3D scanning. We have all seen enough movies or games where we see a human head mapped out on a rotating grid and then the model gains life with skin and muscle being digitally added. So it was fun and enlightening to see some of these model making and scanning machines in action.

Gil Bruvel had some really interesting sculptures on display:

What ideas did we take away and what lessons were learnt?

COST and LEARNING CURVE The 3d scene is becoming more affordable.  The base price of a 3D printer, for example the creatorbot-3d machine,  is priced at $1,845 and will print a piece in polycarbonate or nylon that is 12"w x 12"d x 18"h.  Not bad but you will also need to be able to "build" the stl file that "runs" the printer or issues the instructions or code that determines how it moves and releases jets of polycarbonate to create  the shape of the piece you want to make. To be good at this you will need to learn a program like zbrush or maya or  Sketch up. The first 2 programs run anywhere from $699 to $2000 plus but Sketch up is free. If, like me, you find an on-line tutorial difficult there is a 40 hour course for $1500 available.  BUT whether these costs add up will depend on how you can use what is printed.

PATTERN MAKING If you are starting from scratch and do not have drawing and sculpting skills then yes, 3D printing and modeling are good options. However, for us the learning curve is too long and the output too slow when compared to old fashioned carving and modeling. When Martin has a new concept he is able to draw it very quickly from at least 3 perspectives. He can make a rough model in modeling foam to see if the actual piece in reality is still attractive and at that point can make changes. By comparison, if he created a 3D file it would take him a long time to create the file as his keyboard and mouse skills are slow, it would also take as much as 12 hours to print the piece.  If he then wanted to change it he would have to go back to his digital file and work at his snail pace to make the changes and then spend again up to 12 hours printing it. This process may have to be repeated several times.

MAKING A FINISHED PRODUCT There are some 3D printers that can print metal using essentially fine metal flakes that are mixed in a polymer so the end result is at best a metal hybrid.  Not an option for Martin as we cast our bronze door handles in SOLID silicon bronze and likewise our contemporary door handles using SOLID 316 stainless steel. Both metals are dense, not porous, and have great durability.  They stand on their own as metals and do not need to be plated.  316 Stainless steel is also one of the most corrosive resistant metals around.  We value the inherent beauty of solid bronze and solid steel and both give us the mediums we need to create beautifully crafted heirloom hardware.

HOW WE USE THE TECHNOLOGY We are currently using this technology to scan simple shapes like our new Dragon egg.   Martin turned it on a lathe to create a solid egg shape in wood approximately 14" long by 6" in diameter. To hollow out the wooden egg would have taken Martin 2 to 3 days so we chose to work with a  3D scanning company who scanned the egg and then created an stl file in which they made the egg hollow with a thin wall dimension of .125" . We then worked with a 3D printing company who printed the new hollow egg in a polycarbonate material. This saved us a lot of time and we will use this process again to create blank patterns. The egg has since been carved with what we hope others will agree, is fine artistry, and will be cast in solid .125" steel.  It will be our first venture into custom wall lighting and we are excited to debut it for he hospitality designers and architects who attend the upcoming 2015 HD Expo in Las Vegas.

To view our entire collection of stainless steel and bronze hardware, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Wildflowers offer inspiration for custom hardware designs

We have always been intrigued by the beauty and the variety of California wildflowers and other indigenous plants, as evidenced by many of the designs in our Flora custom hardware collection.

Like many areas of the country, southern California has a wildflower season that begins sometime in the early spring.  The first blooms and the duration of the wildflower viewing season are determined by the weather, specifically the amount of rainfall the area receives during the year.  The drought continues to be in effect, even with the recent rains we have enjoyed, but we are looking forward to some cooler days and more precipitation to enhance the blooming season.  This photo, taken in May 2014 shows just how beautiful the hillsides are when the poppies take over in all their citrus colored glory!

The succulents that grow in the desert also flower and require very little water in order to survive the soaring temperatures and arid conditions.  We are equally intrigued by these hardy plants and often take photos of the various species we discover on our hikes and visits to local botanical gardens.

Flowers are a great source of inspiration for your hospitality design projects, as evidenced by this gorgeous orchid pull designed for our client in Hawaii.

If you get a chance, a trip to the local desert to see these wildflowers in bloom is definitely in order.

To view our Flora designs or our entire collection of architectural hardware, please visit us at www.martinpierce.com

Bronze Jay sculpture reveal

Several months ago we introduced you to our jay sculpture in a three-part series that chronicled the process of designing, sculpting and casting a bronze piece, whether it be used as door hardware or as wall art.  Our goal was to share with you how, after all the hard work, a collection of pieces like this

become a beautiful piece of  sculpture like this soaring beauty:

This majestic piece measure 18" from wing tip to wing tip, 12" from beak to tail and projects 4" from the wall.  The dark oil rubbed patina allows the exquisite detailing of the wings and body to be enjoyed.  Part of a limited edition, this bird sculpture can be hung on the wall and admired as a piece of wall art or utilized as custom door hardware for an impressive entry to a residence, hotel or commercial building.

If you are interested in the jay sculpture or any of our custom hardware collections, please contact us to discuss your specific project.  Our entire collection of architectural hardware can be viewed on our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Hardware, bugs and more at Martin Pierce Hardware

Throughout the years we have shared with you Martin's interest, actually fascination, with insects.  So much so that for several months last year we hosted two beetles we fondly named Natasha and Boris. This interest not only includes the study of their habits but extends further to the study of their habitats, behavior and skeletal structure.  Therefore, many of our vacations and weekend excursions are planned for the very purpose of scouting for and studying many of these creatures. All of this research and study enables Martin to apply amazing detail to not only custom hardware pieces but also to the bronze sculptures and paintings he has been working on. While photographs and more information on these pieces will be available soon, rest assured that the wait will be worth it.

Here are a few examples of some of the custom hardware pieces, in actuality miniature sculptures, that we offer in our collections.  The same labor intensive casting process is used in our smaller hardware pieces as is used in our larger sculptures and custom projects.  Please make note of the exquisite detail in each and every piece.

Wasps feature prominently in some of Martin's new work.  However, our Animal collection of architectural hardware includes a bronze wasp drawer pull that is available in both an open wing and closed wing design.  The beautiful detailing on the wings adds dimension and texture and would be a wonderful addition to the decorative design of a retail boutique, spa or residential project.

Many items from our various collections, including the wasp pull, are artfully displayed at Folger & Burt's showroom in San Francisco.

To view our entire collection of custom hardware or to discuss your own hospitality design project, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.

Our final homage to Antoni Gaudi's architecture

As we continue to share highlights of our recent vacation to Spain we saved the best for last.  Although, quite honestly,  each of Gaudi’s works stands on its own; each is a harmonious tribute to nature. Sagrada Familia

I think the reason that La Sagrada Familia has become the focal point of Gaudi’s achievements is, in part, due to its continued evolution.  Gaudi began work on it in 1883 and continued to work until his death in 1926 when it was less than a quarter complete. Work has continued over the decades, funded by private donations.  The basilica is scheduled to be completed by 2026 which will be the centennial of Gaudi’s death.  On a side note, it is deemed a basilica, meaning significant church, as Barcelona already has a cathedral and apparently you can only have one per city!

Look closely at the exterior of the Sagrada Familia and you will find that it consists of layer upon layer of images and symbolism.

Once inside the visual delight continues.  Pillars inspired by sinew and bones are an amazing feat of both engineering and aesthetic design.

It is fun to compare the design of the pillars to the sinewy movement and design of our Epic entry door handles from our Ergo Collection of architectural hardware.

And light and color are never forgotten by the maestro!

The location and grand scale of this iconic building has certainly secured its position in history and is worth a visit since photographs do not do it justice.

You can view our entire collection of custom hardware at www.martinpierce.com.