Many of you have been keeping up with our driveway gate project  for owners of a new lavender farm in Woodinville, WA (Woodinville Lavender).  We recently installed it and wanted to share pictures of the final work of art. 

The steel frame is powder coated with a faux rust color texture. The steel panels have an “antique black” chemical patina.

The gate doors swing open smoothly using a motorized gate system.

The owners will be doing their own rock & morter work to build three stone pillars that will complete the picture.  We will post photos as soon as they finish the work.  Right now they’re busy pulling weeds and planting lavender!

This photo shows the massiveness of the piece; it took some creative thinking and careful planning to efficiently navigate around our studio space. 

The patina process for the panels was challenging given the large surface area, but we are happy with the end result; rich & varied colors and random consistency. 

At some point you need the oxidation to stop so we dusted the panels with baking soda to neutralize the chemicals. 

Here are the slick, freshly oxidized panels.

The making of the lavender sprigs was the artful part of the process and after testing several techniques to achieve a realistic lavender look, Dave opted to make the buds by layering bronze pieces that were laboriously cut, formed and drilled.

To get an antique gold finish, Dave used another patina process using both chemicals and heat. 

Stay tuned for more photos when the rock work is completed.  We learned a lot from this project and are ready to create another artistic driveway gate.  Call us if you are interested in your own eye-catching entrance way.

We recently created and installed this simple metal deck railing for clients in NE Portland. 

Simple yes, but unique & stunning still the same due to the creativity of our clients.  They wanted to add an assortment of handmade colored glass tiles to the railing but didn’t know quite how.  After talking through some ideas we decided on a 4″ x 4″ mesh railing pattern.  Dave would then create metal bezels to hold the tiles in place; positions dictated by client. 

Here is Dave’s initial mock-up of the bezel, which turned out to be an effective design:

The glass tiles can then be easily secured into place with silicon after the finished railing is installed.

Placing glass tile into metal bezel.

Close-up of glass tiles.

This project came at the tail end of a complete house renovation that was part of Portland’s Tour of Remodeled Homes.  The clients have a vision of a whimsical garden in which to relax & entertain, so as they & their landscapers were quickly finishing the backyard for the tour, we were working diligently on our end to build the railing.  The railing was finished with a grey/beige textured powder coat that complements the window & house trim colors quite nicely.

If you are interested in a similar style ornamental metal railing, please give us a call.  360.281.5619

A glimpse of what’s going on in the shop these days — a driveway gate & walk-through gate for clients who run a lavender farm in Woodinville, Washington.   As they prepare to open their farm to the public they need a stout & eye-catching driveway gate to 1) attract, impress & spark curiosity as people drive by along the busy road in front of their property, and 2) keep the public away from their property during non-business hours.

The basic design, without artistic components, looks like this: 

The  panels will be variegated black, achieved via a chemical patina process, and the frames will be finished with a textured rust powder coat.   

The really fun part will be adding the artistic elements – realistic looking lavender bunches that pop out from the black panels.  Stay tuned for how we create these sprigs in bronze.

Walk-through gate frame.

Ornamental Metal Driveway Gate in process (1 of 2)

More later as the work continues.  Come back and see!

Our young son has always been a creative gift giver (a trait he must have gotten from his dad). The idea behind his new line of gifts started last year when he wanted to make something in the shop for his Grandma J. for her 80th birthday. Idea in mind, he sat down and drew a picture of a flower…”because all grandmas love flowers,” he says. From this picture Dave cut out the design in metal with his plasma-cutter and welded on a rod for the post. Back to S. again to add his own flair to the piece with paint.

Now does that look like one happy grandma? Not to mention one proud kid.

As Christmas approached S decided to go for round 2 by making some garden art for his other grandparents. Another flower for Grandma B. and a golfer, of course, for Granddaddy.

As you can see by the golfer, S’s designs are getting more complex. Luckily this is no problem for the guy he farms it out to – Dave always loves a good metal working challenge (plus it takes the pressure off me for a moment with S playing my usual role).

Handmade gifts are always extra special!

Happy Golfer with Bright Flower.

My step-dad — one of the hardest people to buy for. I think S found the secret.

The biggest surprise of all was the behind-the-scenes work D & S were doing to build a special garden art piece for me. My portrait in steel!
I love my long wavy hair and how he captured my less than perfect smile.

I have a goal to create a parent/child workshop where your young one can design his/her own garden art piece. Your child will start in the studio by sketching a design, then you can both witness the metal shop process (there will be other fun activities for distracted kids). From there your child paints his/her masterpiece and then you get to proudly walk away with a heartfelt work of art.

If this workshop sounds intriguing to you, please let me know so I can gauge interest as I plan the details.

We are officially bi-coastal!  We installed this railing for my mother & stepfather over the holidays in Durham, North Carolina.  We’re quite relieved that all the pieces survived the freight trip and that our long-distance measuring proved accurate.  For the story behind the railing, click here.

( Note the nice NC sunshine in December — how I miss that! )

A natural rusted look with high durability & low maintenence is achieved with a rust textured powdercoat finish.

Just in time for the shortest day of the year Dave and I added some warmly exotic lighting to our dining room.  For several months I had been eyeing some Vietnamese lights at my favorite local bistro/retail store Mint Tea.   I knew it was time to buy when Abdul, the co-owner, told me they were having a sale on all their fair trade items.  Merry Christmas to me!

Of course, I really wanted to have them hung before a holiday party we were hosting a week later. Nothing like time pressure to keep you hopping!  We designed a very simple metal bracket and Dave went at it.  Here it is:

Distressed & Blackened Steel Bracket

I love the exotic curves of these lights (which I must mention were wired and hung just in time for our party). 

This was our first foray into lighting and we are ready to do more.  Contact us for your own custom lighting dreams.

Here are photos of a recent project we completed in Northeast Portland. Our client is renovating this old beauty with the help of a PDC grant (Portland Development Commission targets certain neighborhoods for revitalization and offers grants for building improvements). It has been converted to two apartments and an art studio.

Word has it that the house has a colorful past, and some of the neighbors worried its notoriety might be forgotten, and along with it some neighborhood character. Our client decided to honor the so named Henry Williams house by calling it “H.W. on Garfield” (the street name), and placing a prominent sign above the porch eave. Wish I knew the history. Or perhaps not – it might not be as romantically intriguing as I imagine. Speakeasy? Brothel? If I get the juice I’ll share it.

Far view of the project showing signage & tubular stair railing.

Stainless Steel House Sign & Address Plates

Letters & numbers were laser cut.

Powder coated stair railing

Installation

Simple, sleek address plates

We recently installed this stair railing at a client’s home.  To read the story behind the design, go here.  We used a hammer textured powder coat called silver vein.

I went around with my camera today taking photos of our goings on. 

We recently got this southwestern porch railing back from powder coat.  Next stop, palletize & ship to North Carolina.

Laser cut parts for the ribbit railing.

Rust happens! Natural oxidation in action on the railing we built for our house this summer. It has to get ugly before it gets pretty and develops that overall deep orange brown that we are looking for as a finish.

We were asked to come up with some railing designs for a new client in Battle Ground, WA; an 80 year old woman who is upgrading her home for better accessibility and ease-of-use . Her one-level home with its open floor plan is spacious and classy and she doesn’t want to clutter up its charm with “geriatric looking stuff.” Not quite ready for a ramp or the standard ADA aluminum railings, she gave us leeway to create three simple designs. My feeling was that although she didn’t want the ADA rails, she wasn’t looking for a piece of art either. Functional, sturdy and nice looking were her priorities. “Nothing fancy”, she kept saying, “it’s only two steps!”

I knew we needed to include a simple picket wrought iron rail in the mix. Yes, Dave can make a mean picket railing that looks great and will last forever, but that doesn’t give me much opportunity to show off some design verve. So my challenge was to design something a little arty yet still simple enough and not much over the cost of the standard picket.

I consider the challenge met as we will be building what we’ve dubbed the Ribbit Railing for her. “Cute” she kept saying. My inspiration came from the pond in her front yard where several small frogs have taken up residence. She had us all laughing at her frog tales. Those little guys sometimes hop right into her house! No doubt they bring a fair share of joy to her. Frogs just do that. So I tried to capture some of the joy and whimsy in her railing, while adding a nod to the subtle Asian influences of her house and landscape in the rail ends.

Dave will begin work in the next couple days. We will have the frog image  laser cut, and still have powder coat colors to choose; some dark shade of grey. We expect to have it completed and installed in three weeks, hopefully plenty time before the cold weather kicks in and the frogs burrow down for the winter.

Finally a BIG SHOUT OUT to Lori Rhodig of Access at Home, Inc.  http://accessathomeinc.com/. Lori and her husband recently started a business of retrofitting homes for Accessibility, Safety, and Comfort.  They are beautifully updating this woman’s bathroom to include a walk-in tub (i.e. tub with a door!).  When their client said she wanted a nice railing as well, Lori thought of us, and a nice partnership was formed.