Forged Steel Botanicals

From his earliest days as a blacksmith, Kyle has enjoyed forging flowers, leaves, and other botanical structures. It’s a unique and satisfying challenge to transform hard, flat steel into the fluid shapes of plants. Here are a couple recent projects that put those skills to use.

First up is a small tabletop bamboo sculpture. This piece stands about 12” tall and was included in our exhibit as guest artists of the month at Crozet Artisan Depot a few years ago.

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Next is a set of shelf brackets designed around a grapevine and leaf motif. A winery near Vancouver, British Columbia reached out to us about creating these custom brackets for their new tasting room.

You can see other examples of Kyle’s botanical forging in other blog posts, including a double-leaf tree gate, a custom mantle mirror, and an exterior cat tail sculpture.

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Blue Ridge Mountains Mosaics

As nature-lovers in Virginia, it’s no surprise we’re drawn to the iconic imagery of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Over the years Johannah has created a variety of mosaics featuring the mountains.

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Though we don’t hike these beautiful mountains as often as we’d like, we do try to get there a few times a year. Every single visit is such an inspiring and mind-clearing experience. Returning to the studio after one hike, Johannah developed the idea for a larger landscape of the mountains. This mosaic would include three panels and feature the rocky outcroppings so common to the Blue Ridge.

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Humpback Rocks, photo by NPS

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Blackrock Summit, photo by NPS

The basic composition Johannah had in mind included an outcropping and a pine tree, with the mountains in the distance beyond. While some ideas come to mind fully-formed, this one took a few twists and turns as it came into being. First it took a few tries to land on a way to illustrate the pine tree she found satisfying. Later, once the mosaic seemed complete, something still felt missing. She decided a mosaic frame around the three panels would pull it all together.

Pine tree attempt #1

Pine tree attempt #2

Pine tree attempt #3, success at last!

Almost done but something's missing...

A border pulls it all together.

The resulting mosaic landscape was included in our exhibit as guest artists of the month at Crozet Artisan Depot a few years ago. What better place to display this piece than a little town nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge!

Forged Interior Railing with Mosaic Inlay

Here’s another project in our favorite category, mosaic and steel collaborations. This client reached out to us about replacing the existing railing in their home. They wanted something more artistic and individual.

To fit their needs, Kyle designed custom hand-forged steel railing with mosaic panels incorporated into the design. For the mosaics, the client requested asymmetric designs in white and black.

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The railing for this home included three sections:

• two panels on either side of the lower portion of the stairs

• a bannister on the wall for the upper part

• and a balcony along the top edge.

As Kyle and his team created the railing, Johannah worked on making the mosaics on mesh panels. Once all the parts were completed, Johannah glued the mosaics into the railing then grouted them.

Below you can see all three sections of the railing installed in the client’s home. We’ve included some close-up shots of some of our favorite details.

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