AN ARTISAN’S MATERIALS

Wood Veneers, Chinoiserie & Bronze Casting

written by Gail Baral

Blending their skills in art and commerce, Anne and Martin Pierce are living the artisan’s dream. Together they manage a thriving business based on Martin’s talent as an artist and Ann’s ability as a businessperson. Everyday they take their two dogs, elegant Vizsla's named Brie and Mobier, to the shop where they oversee the manufacturing of a 46 piece furniture collection, which is sold "to the trade" at showrooms around the country.

Hedgerow Branch Buffet #6000
Martin Pierce’s artisan furniture does not follow trends. He designs and manufactures pieces based on what inspires him. Organic shapes such as interlocking tree branches inspired the Hedgerow Collection while fiddle head ferns and maple and vine leaves embellish the Ascot Series. Martin Pierce’s unique bronze casted hardware evolved from Martin’s fascination with insects, birds and butterflies.

I met with Anne and Martin in their workshop on Washington Blvd in Los Angeles. We discussed Martin’s evolution from carved wood sculptures to the materials he uses today for the functional art he creates.



StyleForLiving: What type of wood do you use for your furniture?

Martin: We mainly use solid walnut, but we also make extensive use of wood veneers because they are practical and beautiful. In most cases, you cannot get the extraordinary woods that we use in solids and if you can, they are too expensive and heavy. A large piece, like a tabletop, will eventually warp or crack if it is solid but a wood veneer is much more stable.

Ascot End Table #3200
I select woods that are less common such as Japanese Ash, called Tamo in Japanese, which is prized for its peanut-like figuring. We use an English Brown Oak that is unusual because oak is usually red. This variety is brown because the trees have a disease that turns the wood. We use Mandrone Burl, which comes from the root of the trees and natural Bird's Eye Maple. Sometimes we use exotic woods but we never use endangered woods like Rosewood or Mahogany.

StyleForLiving: What is a wood veneer?

Martin: A veneer is a thin layer of wood. We fix the veneer to medium density fiberboard, referred to as MDF, to create a laminated panel. For flat surface furniture, hot glue joins the wood to the MDF by using a giant press. Wood is applied to curved furniture with vacuum pressure. The pre-carved shape is placed in a large plastic bag along with several layers of wood and glue. A motor sucks out the air, putting pressure on the veneer and glue and ultimately joining them together.

Mills on the east coast prepare the wood by quarter cutting the trees and then cutting the quarters into thin slices. These slices are tied together into a bundle and there are many bundles that come from a log. Each slice in a log has the same figuring or gain lines. We buy the entire log so that we have some consistency of figuring and color. We sample a piece of each log before we buy it from the mill and search many mills to find the best figuring available at any time.

Hedgerow Circlular Table #1010
StyleForLiving: How do you create the beautiful Starburst pattern on the Hedgerow Circular Table?

Martin: We lay a wedge shaped stencil onto the thin slice of wood and find the exact part of the pattern that we want to use. Then we take the next slice and turn it the opposite way to create a mirror image of the first piece. We continue to alternate the slices in this way to create the star configuration. This method is called book matching.

StyleForLiving: What is Chinoiserie?

Martin: We build a high relief or raised surface design by layering paint, gold leaf, and lacquer over a base of gesso, which is traditionally a mixture of glue and lime. We apply gold size, which is a gold glue, and when it has set we apply gold leaf, which is delicate and requires a very gentle hand to place and burnish. We then paint our maple or vine leaf design with thin layers of oil paint. We apply several layers of paint and seal each layer with lacquer. Then we glaze and water spot the piece to give it a rich antique quality. The Chinese originated this technique and many artisans in Japan, France and England imitated the process and have created their own version of this procedure.

StyleForLiving: You design and manufacture all of your own hardware. Tell us about the inspiration and production process.

Martin: I have been into bugs, butterflies and birds since I was a child in England. I used to sculpt them into large bronze art pieces. When we could not find unique hardware for our furniture collection, it was a natural progression for me to focus on this detail.

Swallow Handle 12010
I make the original design in jeweler's wax. A foundry makes a latex rubber mold of the piece and then makes a wax replica from that mold. They add gates and spurs which we need to pour the hot metal into the mold. This wax mold is then covered in ceramic to create a shell around the wax piece. We fire it in a kiln to bake the clay hard and to melt the wax inside. Today this is called a shell casting but it used to be referred to as the lost wax process. Next we pour melted bronze into the clay mold through the gates. Once the mold has cooled, we break the ceramic shell to release the bronze piece. The gates and spurs are ground off and then polished or sand blasted with fine glass beads to smooth imperfections. We use a non-toxic acid to color the bronze to compliment the furniture pieces. Finally the bronze piece is waxed. Not only is this a multi-step process, it has to be repeated for each piece. Some designs can be ganged together in one ceramic mold so that about a dozen pieces can be cast at the same time.