The San Diego Harbor Dr. restaurant recently went through a major facelift and the last thing to do was replace the railing. The designers had their designs, but in the end accepted my design that has the wave pattern with the turquoise glass roundel's and stainless steel bubbles. We'll be installing the finished product in September.
Daniel Perez is a budding artist/student at Mira Costa College. When he was first introduced to the "Kites Over Vista" program, he knew that he wanted to enter the competition. His model "Back to Basics" (left image) was 1 of 8 selected for the latest exhibit opening in May 2011. On the right is a colorized version of the acutal steel sculpture in my shop. I think this is a great design and will be a very popular piece for the "Kites Over Vista" program.
(concept)
This is the final concept drawing of my latest submission to the "Kites Over Vista" program. The dancer figure will spin and twist in the wind like my "Wind Beams" and also be interactive, with the ball being in reach.
(in-progress)
This is the beginning of my new public art sculpture for the City of Vista. In this photo, the finished ball and pedestal leg are put together for the first time. I've added the drawing for a scale view of the finished sculpture.
9' wide x 5' high, the first stage of the Flying Pig wall art
is ready to be checked
A client of mine needed 2 large chandeliers for her T.V. room. She found something that she liked, but needed 36" diameter instead of the 30" offered. I re-designed the hardware, added real wax candles for the bulbs, and added a center down light.
This is the start of the holdfast. We're not going to even attempt to duplicate nature's complex structure. But we are going to try to keep the proportions to the model.
The stem of the actual model is tapered and twisted. In this photo you can see the interior frame that will be covered with a steel skin. It really does look like the model.
An old client of mine asked me to help him complete the fireplace remodel with a tropical screen. We designed a screen that matched perfectly with the bamboo furniture and details in his tropical interior. When complete it will have a rust finish. I think it looks pretty good like it is.
The special thing about this rail is that all of the detail pc's, including the bottom detail on the post were designed and fabricated in our shop.
Same residence as above. This ornamental pantry door will be completed with a bronze patina finish. I've never met the client home owners and have been working strictly with the interior designer, whose approval of my work is always tempered with sighs and it's ok but...... Everyone else on the project loves the ironwork. I think this designer would prefer to work with someone else on her next project.
We've been working on this residence for over 2 years, and are now at the final stages. The style of the fireplace was done to match the ironwork that we did in the rest of the house. I've included a couple of insets to show some detail. Check out the hand made hinges and pulls. It will look best when it's
installed in the home.
This is the spiral with the scrolls installed. We're not done and as you can see we've installed much larger scrolls that will be banded on every baluster.
Step 1
Each of the 4 sides of the box are made in 3 separate layers for each layer to do it's individual job. #1 interior structure frame (holds up the whole 1000# structure), #2 plastic laminate frame (needed to be separated from the structure frame by 6" to eliminate shadows), #3 outer decorative frame installed after the plastic laminate is attached to the laminate frame.
Step 2
This is the inside frame of the column surround. All painted white to help eliminate shadows. It is suspended from the ceiling and will be covered in 3-Form. 3-Form is a very expensive decorative, translucent, simulated marble material. And as you can see will be lit from behind. The 3-form will then be wrapped in steel (see above) and finished with dark and light bronze tones.
Step 3
Almost there!
This is the 3-form cover over the frame. The complicated frame makes sense when you see that the shadows of the laminate frame that will be covered by the outside diagonal bands of steel.
Frida/Glendale
Step 4
Now the outside metal structure is on and you can see the complicated inside frame is covered by the outside steel bands and no shadows appear on the box. Looks easy doesn't it?
Check out the "Commercial Page"
On the plasma table in the shop we're able to make sketches into reality by transferring the design into a cad drawing and cutting it out in steel. Here we're cutting out the tree shape you see in the next photo.
This is going to be a fun project. The client has been extremely patient with me and I think she'll be happy with the end result. This is one side of a double gate for a home in Palm Desert. When completed the tree like form will be turned into a 3-D tree with hand forged leaves that will fill in the open spaces.
The tree design is an artistic version of the "Golden Ball Lead Tree".
From the photo above to this photo, a lot of work was done. The tree was covered with leaves, only to have them all removed. We had placed so many leaves on the gate that they were covering the tree. In this photo the gate is in it's final stage and is ready for the finish.
The first panels are completed and standing on the shop beam table. You can see the finished project on the "Residential" page.