Architectural Forgings / Other work

The Wareham Forge

Sign Hangers and other Architectural Details
newest work to the top

Peterson House - St Agatha, Ontario
'Organics'
Fence • Supports • Railing
2012 - 2013

This is a larger project, consisting of three individual commissions:
• The first was an extension to the existing board fence, running down the drive and along the street frontage.
• The second was a pair of structural supports to replace the original timber work on the front porch.
• The third was a railing for the small deck on top of that same porch.
The total is an interesting assemblage, using related, but not identical, organic elements and lines.

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Stubbs House - Toronto, Ontario
'Juliet' Balcony
2011

I was contacted in 2011 by a pair of neighbours in the Yorkville area of Toronto. The homes there are late 1800's row houses with small yards. One wanted restoration work done to an original (wrought iron!) front fence.

The other wanted a small 'Juliet' balcony, to extend just slightly outside a pair of narrow double doors leading off her kitchen. The purpose was mainly to offer some restraint when the doors were open in good weather. (Older single person, no children involved.) The new installation was to match the look and feel of a recently installed rear stair. The same clean lines using curved heavy tube was the desire.
The finished balcony has a top rail at the required 42 inches, but is more open than what is called for by the building code. It arcs out to be a bit further from the wall line at the top rail than at the bottom supports. Made as a single piece, figuring out how to hold it into place while mounting it proved a bit of a challenge!

Graham House - Guelph Ontario
'Disks' - Front Door Security Panel
Winter 2009

Although originally intended as a security grill, this project in the end became an artistic feature for a 1960's bungalow in Guelph Ontario. I followed the project on a series of blog postings, edited here into an illustrated description of the project as it progressed.

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'May Flowers by Design' 2003

This is a smaller free standing post and hanger. The challenge here was to work inside a limited budget, and produce a support that would echo the lines of the existing sign without dominating it. One long piece of heavy tube runs from ground and folds over to support the sign. This main element is both strengthened and enhanced by the two lighter diameter pieces of tube. These are flared at the ends to repeat the flower theme of the sign and customer's business. Now installed in Bolton Ontario.

May Flowers by Design provides landscaping design services.

J & P Adventures - Paisley

This piece is a large sign hanger created for J & P Adventures, an outfitting store on the main street of Paisley, Ont. Several factors hand to be taken into account for this design. First, the customer had already commissioned the actual sign board, and some way to securely support it had to be devised. This without obscuring any of the surface, which as you can see was painted right up to the edge. Second was a limit on sign hangers by local by - law. Nothing could stick out from the face of a building more than five feet. For me, an important consideration was to use the proper scale for the hanger. Its lower edge was over 10 feet from the sidewalk. I decided to use looping curves suggestive of the 'white water' theme of this canoe rental business. The main spar was forged from 2 x 1/4" flat the the other elements of 1 1/2 x 3/16" stock. One of the features of the final piece was the use of 'air brushed' paint to further enhance the wave like shapes of the overall design.

'Anvil Sign Hanger' 1989 / 1990

This piece, was started while I was still working at Black Creek, and marked the first larger piece I finished at the new forge at Wareham (completed the first year we moved there). I wanted something that would mark the new business - but at the same time stay pretty subtle. Using a traditional 'picture' sign board struck me as ideal. The lines of the hanger are very Art Nouveau - a style that would dominate my later artistic work. The light frame still has securely held the 24" long anvil cut out through the worst winds (!!) thrown at it for all the decades since.

Another large work was a large memorial cross which is now marking a grave in a small local graveyard outside of Belleville Ont. The finished object was in the form of a Celtic standing cross, about five feet tall, and 2 1/2 feet across. Unfortunately, I do not have a photograph of the finished installation.

Over the years I have made a fair number of decorative handles and hinge plates, including brackets and mounts for timber frame and log homes. Another object I have created that is often hard to find - are fireplace cranes. Past work has included modern styled pieces retrofitted to existing fire places and as strict historic reproductions for century homes.

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