Botanical Steel and Mosaic Sculptures

As we continued to brainstorm collaborative sculpture ideas, we decided our first batch of sculptures would include a variety of sizes and styles. Once we finished the tabletop abstract sculptures, we wanted to go bigger.

We settled on bamboo as a subject that provides opportunity for each of our mediums to shine. It also offered Kyle an opportunity to try something different with a theme he’s returned to a few times.

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Kyle made a variety of forged textured leaves as well as the hollow shapes of leaves for Johannah to fill with mosaic. He finished the sculpture with a rust brown patina. Johannah chose bright yellowy-green for the mosaic leaves. We were really pleased with the way the monochrome green and the warm tones of the finished steel work together.

The last piece in this first run of sculptural pieces is a pea plant. Kyle forged a beautiful pea plant complete with corkscrew tendrils as well as a hollow pea shape form. He finished it with the same rust brown patina. Johannah found flat green marbles in the perfect size and color to represent peas for this piece.

Forged Bronze Cross with Lilies

Some our readers may remember Kyle and his team created a double-leaf tree gate for a local church a few years ago. They reached out to us again when they were ready for the next phase of their courtyard redesign. This part of the project included the creation of a decorative bronze cross.

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Forging the lilies was the most intricate part of this project. In the last photo above, you can see some of the process. Kyle starts with a billet of bronze, then forges that out into a sheet. From there he forges the flower itself.

Below you can see photos of the finished cross and lilies. The first two photos are at our old studios in Richmond. The last one shows the piece installed in the church’s courtyard garden.

Forged Steel and Mosaic Custom Garden Sculpture

If you know us at all, you maaay have noticed combining our skills to create mosaic and steel collaborations is one of our very favorite things to do. Can we tell you just how thrilled we were when this client approached us to create a custom garden sculpture in both forged steel and mosaic?

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We based the design for this sculpture around native Virginia plants such as arrowroot, cat tails, pickerelweed, and ferns. Kyle created an organic design incorporating simple geometric shapes to represent the leaves and flowers. In the first step to bring this sculpture to life, Kyle and his team forged the steel framing and organic forms. Next Johannah made the mosaics to fill in the geometric shapes. The mosaics were made on mesh then transferred into the sculpture, glued in place, and finally grouted.

You can see photos of the sculpture installed in the garden below, as well as a few close-up details of the mosaics and forged organic forms.

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