Case studies
Home for Ancient Olive Trees
My incredible customers do give me some really enjoyable projects to work on. In this case, a previous customer returned with another challenge (see the Garden Arbour with a Difference for the previous project):
Having bought two amazing olive trees, my customer wanted planters for them to be housed in. He also wanted to adorn a door, within the same location, with a leaf shaped canopy. When you get to pictures of the finished project, you'll see the contrast between the building and the lead-effect, patinated metal structures and the way in which they work beautifully together.
Take a look through the gallery of images at the process each of the elements went through: for the canopy, I mocked up a real-sized door on the wall of my workshop to show how the finished piece would look; for the planters you can see imagery and watch videos of them from their skeleton through the construction process.
I love the end result of this project, and I'm so glad that my products fit so well in their new home!
Lydia the Lark
A great commission from the owners of a brand new, self-build home in North Suffolk. The lark inspiration came from the name of the original house on the site and my customers wanted me to create a canopy of their front door.
As with most of my projects, drawings are approved by my customers and then, with the larger pieces, a maquette is made, both for me and my customers to see how the final piece will look, in 3 dimensions, when it's complete. The design incorporates obelisk supports and a huge lark shaped canopy. The obelisks are adorned with seed-head finials made with giant blue marbles.
Take a look at the images to see the process from the original drawings, through to the forming of the structure, the final build, galvanising and patination. We had a trial fitting when Lydia was complete - luckily there were some ground workers on site that day as it took six of us to get Lydia into position. The final installation went without a hitch and I'm massively pleased and proud of the end result. Lydia has found her new roost and makes an entrance for all to see!
My smallest customers
Designed with the smallest customers in mind, this is a large egg-shaped table 1370 x 1200cm. Two cut-outs in the 12mm thick glass mean that the client's two children can snuggle up into the table to draw and play. The base is made from an industrial galvanized water tank-looking part which is zinc coated and patinated, and a brushed copper whimsical part. The client's house is beautifully old and has an inglenook fireplace with old metal objects with similar finishes to those of the table base. A whacky table but with echoes of the room it will eventually end up in.
Once I've applied the chemical to the zinc coating (which makes it go black), I then use rainwater to accelerate the process (see the video). I have to set things in the way they will eventually end up so that the streaks work with the project. After a couple of days, the surface goes powdery and looks like an old, galvanized water tank.
Leaving an Impression
This has been one of those projects that I've been overwhelmingly honoured to be a part of and here's why...
My client's daughter lives in Canada but has returned for a year to spend some quality time with her mum. My brief was to design and make a Juliette balcony for their house and, as they were telling me their story, we discussed the idea of creating somethign that would remind them of their daughter.
The end result - a balcony that uses the daughter's thumb print as the design: every time my clients pull up to their house, they have a beautiful remind of their daughter. What an impression!